There are threeee heeeelers in this roooom.

You need to hum-sing that line, like Hercule Poirier (spp?) in Murder on the Orient Express.. you know, "There are tooo many cluuues in this roooom."

The third, masked heeler is at this very moment giving me nasty, sad looks from across the room, and letting out "I am miserable" sighs. I just put her cone back on, since she had been trying to sneak in a few licks on her stitches.

But she is here.

She was, of course, deliriously happy when youngest son and I came to rescue her from the vet's. And more so when we took the cone off in the truck. She has been camped out on the living room floor since she got here, with a few excursions to follow her Alpha to other rooms (not encouraged, since some have slick floors). She's been enjoying the lumps of a comforter and a sleeping bag (guess where I spent the night...not very restful).

We just got back from outside. She has to be carried down and up the stairs, which is embarassing. And stay on a short leash the entire time, to prevent any unwise wild dashes across the lawn. But she quickly finishes her business, and then just wants to sit and watch and smell her neighborhood.

Ten to fifteen minutes of just sitting there in the wind, with gusts that flatten her ears to her skull and knock me back a step. But she's out!

Had a squirrel sneak down one tree and go dashing away, which she saw, but she wisely stayed put.

She'll get them later.

She seems extremely conscious of her butt. Her butt has always been sacred, often flying into a panic if a fly just landed on it. But now she is paranoid about getting bumped, wary of any other heeler or person that walks by.

Tried to nestle in beside her and curl myself around her injured side to protect it, but she didn't even trust me, shifting around to keep her distance. But when the wife came home, the poor heeler promptly bedded beside her, injury inside, and went into deep sleep.

Not sure what we're going to do with her, now that we have her. We had planned to keep her in the kennel (a large pet carrier) when we couldn't watch her, but she won't fit now with the cone around her neck. We tried, but using her (smaller) sister as the guinea pig, not her. She can get in, but not turn around with the cone on.

And I'm supposed to be on check station tomorrow for a late cow elk season. And have to go to Lander on Friday. Will be gone the weekend, but wife will be home then to keep an eye on the masked heeler. But come Monday and Tuesday, I have to be in Lovell, clear on the other side of the state.

We're checking into finding a bigger kennel. Failing that, we may barricade off part of the room, and keep her here.

Hard part is keeping her from jumping. She already decided to try to join the youngest son on the couch, and has moved to jump up whenever asked to go outside. So all chairs and couches are blocked off now.

But she's here!