he's home

Except for the collar and the little bit you can see of his partially shaved tail, you'd never know from this picture the trauma he's been through in the last 48 hours.

We got home about 5:00 on Friday. He got himself out of the crate and proceeded to make his wishes known. He headed straight for the kitty door...which I had locked. Then he tried to hop up on the dining room chair...which I prevented. Next he went to the stairs...which I body-blocked by sitting on the bottom step. He lay down and sized up the situation, looking for the openings...which he found. I intercepted him, but he was not going to be deterred. Finally, I convinced him to let me carry him upstairs.

He is not supposed to run, jump, lick, or climb stairs for two weeks. We'd been home less than an hour and he'd tried them all. On one hand, that its a very good sign. On the other, this could be a long two weeks for the humans.

Once upstairs, he tried to crawl in his favorite cubby to sleep. With the collar and missing one hind wheel, he couldn't navigate getting in and turning around like he ideally does. He lay on the floor by it and slept for almost an hour. In catly fashion, having slept that spot dry, he headed for his next favorite perch--the office chair in my room--and once again, I interfered. Persuading him to let me help, I lifted him up on the chair where he remains almost four hours later.

And we are watching him like a hawk lest he try to get himself down.

He's doing well on pain meds every six hours. We will decrease them as he can tolerate and we have good markers to recognize when pain increases.

Welcome home, HoneyBoy. Thanks, everyone, for your support and prayers.