My View: Our dog Page recently needed knee surgery. We adopted her about 18 months ago from an animal shelter. She had been turned over by her owners at 9 months of age and we adopted her 5 months later. We think this time spent in the shelter caused her to have a fear of new and/or different things in her life. We were very concerned about how she would handle the surgery process as well as the healing process afterward. Val had talked to our 3 previous dogs with very good results, so we decided to have Val discuss the upcoming surgery with Page. We knew the vet would be doing the surgery at his office and then we would take Page to the emergency clinic so that she could be monitored overnight. Val explained all this to Page. We were very pleasantly surprised when Page sailed through the entire process with no apparent fear or panic. She seemed to understand exactly what was happening and what she needed to do at each step in the process. When she went in 2 weeks after the surgery to have her staples removed, the vet said she was actually ahead of schedule in the healing process. We are very grateful to Val for her help in what could have been a traumatic situation for Page.
Page’s view: I recently had to have knee surgery. I am very unsure when new or different things happen in my life. My old family dropped me off at the animal shelter when I was just 9 months old. My new family did not rescue me until I was 14 months old. The stories told by the other dogs at the shelter can be very frightening. I am always afraid that I could lose my new family or that some of the bad things I heard about at the shelter could happen to me. Knowing what I was facing, my new family had Val talk to me and explain what would be happening. When the day of the surgery arrived, I knew what to expect. My one owner left me at the vet in the morning and then both my owners came and picked me up and took me to the emergency room so that they could monitor my pain over night. Because I knew what was happening, I was able to help with my recovery. Now I am doing very well and I am well on my way back to being my old self – a true puppy princess.