Day 1 – First Day Home

Well we picked up JJ from the vets at 5pm. We thought we had prepared mentally, we were all set up at home and just eager to get him home. I can honestly say all of that went out of the window! On top of yesterday being our first day getting JJ back we had been to a funeral for my partners Nan so emotionally we were not in a great place. The timing of the amputation couldn’t have been worse but we didn’t want to delay it.

So we collected him, the car journey home was nervous but uneventful. JJ slept the whole way home.

We walked in through the door and were greeted by one very excited Pixel (as he always does when we come home). This was the first mistake! They saw each other JJ freaked out and did a flip and howl inside the carrier, I screamed because it made me jump out of my skin and Pixel just hit the roof and started hissing. I quickly took JJ upstairs with Pixel hot on my heels. If I was to do this again, I’d have sent my partner into the house to shut Pixel in the lounge and just carried JJ up the stair without him realising.

I had a crate all set up, big enough for food bowls, littler and his bed. So he got in and got settled. Pixel sat outside the bedroom door crying to get in and investigate. So eventually we let him in. He wasn’t happy about not being able to get to JJ, and he was very concerned. This seemed to make JJ nervous so we took Pixel back out. We seemed to have been doing this all night long, there is no good way to do it. If he’s in the room he’s making JJ nervous by sticking his paw inside the cage, if he’s outside the room he’s crying continuously to get in and as any Bengal owners will know, they are loud, and never give up! He was also jumping at the handle as he knows he can open them!

Jj in his dog crate getting as close as possible to me for a chin tickle!

JJ and Pixel before his operation. They are best friends and inseparable!

Update

The vets said they had put a cone in for JJ to wear but that he wasn’t bothered by his stitches. Upon arriving home we found… they had forgotten to give it to us. We managed without it for a while as he wasn’t bothered. Then it came to around 8pm aka usual bath time licking routine and he was trying to get at them. So I called the vets and arranged to make the 30 mile round trip to go and pick up the collar. Whilst I was there I also bought some feliway spray as I thought JJ’s episodes might have been partly due to the anxiety of everything.

I got home out on the collar and JJ was not impressed! He was struggling to eat from his bowls and looked truely miserable. I remembered reading about using a baby grow instead so I went to dig out one of my daughters baby ones that I’d saved. This worked a treat. JJ looked so much more comfortable and wasn’t trying to get at his stitches anymore.

The feliway spread seemed to help too. It calmed him down and also calmed Pixel down too. It was still a sleepless night as I lay on the floor next to his crate watching him sleep.

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