Well, then, relief. The stitched-in drains in our little Riley's thigh have been removed, both of them. He will continue to drain for a few days yet, sans the drains, until the wounds caused by their insertion finally heal. In fact, we've been informed the amount of body fluid mixed with blood can be expected to increase for a day or so. As it is, we change his little onesies several times daily including the 'leg' portion that covers his affected leg and absorbs most of the fluids. The technicians at the veterinarian hospital had never before seen a set-up quite like that. But it sure beats having to put one of those dreadful "Elizabethan collars" on the poor little guy's neck to keep him from licking the sutures and his incision.

We'll still refrain from taking him into the ravine for a while yet, until the wounds in his legs completely heal. We'll venture short walks and perhaps carry him part way until full recovery is complete. We prefer not to place him in a woodlands setting where a situation might arise that would contaminate the wounds. In any event, it will be weeks before he is ambulatory enough to go out for hour-long walks, and by then the stitches closing that horribly long incision from his shoulder across and down his belly will have been removed; not that he's devoid of energy. His recovery has been swift; we have to keep him from leaping about, jumping, but that hasn't been his style for years now.

We still monitor him but are nowhere as anxious as we were. He was underfoot this morning in the kitchen when I was baking cookies; he's a dreadful cadge, but chocolate chip cookies and ginger cookies are not canine fare, but meant for our young (relatively speaking) house guests. They're family, but guests all the same, and honoured as such. They may not be young in years but they're cookie monsters all the same.

When I preparing snap-beans to accompany tonight's dinner he tarried hopefully as well, on our return from the veterinary hospital. He was offered a small portion of an uncooked bean and courteously abstained; he prefers them cooked, unlike his after-dinner salad when he has raw salad vegetables.

And this really is a dog's life. This dog, in any event.