Two years ago

It's already been two years since Tasha tore a knee ligament in one of her back legs. She had surgery to replace the ligament and needed to be confined (with short, leashed walks) for several months. Local friends lent us a corral and Tasha took to it right away. We ended up getting two corrals of our own; one for the living room and one for the loft upstairs. Tasha wasn't allowed to run, especially on slippery floors, until the leg healed.

Tasha in doggy jail wearing the cone of shame, January 2022.

Early on in her recovery, while she still had stitches, Tasha needed to wear the "cone of shame" to keep her from pulling out the stitches and licking her scar. She hated the cone and pulled it off a few times, but she got through it and didn't have to wear it for too long.

So now it's been two years and it's almost like nothing happened. She's been going leash-less on daily walks for a while now and enjoys chasing birds in the vineyard. We use a panel from one of the corrals to keep her from flying down the main stairs (and possibly slip) when cars and pedestrians go by, but that's pretty much the only remaining restriction she has. She goes up and down those stairs normally otherwise, with us both reminding her to "go slow." She won't climb the steep stairs to loft, though. I think that she thinks she's not allowed to since it was blocked off for months during her recovery. I still carry her up at bed time and down each morning.