Romeo gets neutered

Today was Romeo's neuter. We expected it to be difficult and he lived up to expectations.

I gave him a hefty dose of trazadone at 6:00 a.m. this morning, and he had received the same the evening before, which left him so wobbly that he had difficulty on the stairs. I put a muzzle on him when we arrived at the vet this morning and I took him in and held him while they gave him another shot of something to take him down even further. He laid down after that and was fighting sleep, but fight it he did. When they gave him the next injection prior to surgery he was still fighting being touched by strangers even while I was holding his head. He's not really trying to bite, his primary defense mechanism is to violently jerk his body around to make it impossible to do anything to him.

I've brought them some difficult dogs before, and Romeo isn't the worst, but he makes the list. Nevertheless, they persisted, and prevailed. I left when he was zonked out, quite happy that I didn't have to lift him up and carry him to the operating table.

I came back about mid-afternoon and picked him up. He was happy to see me. Happy at least relative to seeing everyone else there. He was wearing a cone and able to walk and he even hopped into the back of the van with just a minor assist from me for the back end.

There's a bed and blankets in the back end of the van, it's a pretty comfortable spot. The dogs often hang out in there if I open the back of the van while I'm out working in the yard. And he was pretty content back there most of the way home, but coming down Route 15 getting pretty close to home, he decided to climb up on top of the crates and try to make it up to the front seat. The last thing I wanted or needed was the big hairy beast climbing into my lap while I was driving. I pulled over at the post office, opened the back end and coaxed him back down. But as soon as I pulled out of the parking lot he was back to climbing up on top of the crates headed towards the front seat. Maybe it's the equivalent of a drunk person thinking they are fine to drive. Ideas that seem like good ideas while under the influence are NEVER good ideas, for people or dogs.

He had difficulty getting upstairs due to the cone, so after dinner I left him downstairs. The good news is that he's got a prospective home. I'm hoping we can make it happen soon.

Here is Romeo perched on top of the crates
in the back of the van.