Schmootzie is now gaining confidence.  His breathing has become far more regular.  Once he realizes we are occupied with something other than him, he settles down for a little rest.  Periodically, he goes in and out of his crate, even if only to search for a treat!  This morning I showed him how to climb the first 2 steps, and he went up the rest of the steps on his own!  Because he is still wearing the e-cone, I don't want to push any more.  He needs his peripheral vision to do the job right.

This morning I washed his face, combed it out and brushed his teeth.  He seemed happy to have the attention.

A brief exploration on the web yielded lots of pix of dogs who look like him, but almost universally, no one knew what breed they were!  I was amazed to see how people were willing to trim and dye their dog's hair.  We still have to wait a while to get this done--I think we'll aim for the 28th or so--and I'm looking for something like a puppy-Teddy Bear cut for him.

Today is the first day it occurred to me that Schmootzy might have something to say to you folks, some opinion about what's going on so, let me turn it over to him:

Hi there,

Gotta apologize for Suri.  She's a lovely lady, mind you, I have nothing bad to say about her or Stan--Stan, the man,hey, hey.  But I digress.  It is 10:45 pm--a guy like me ought to be sleeping, and I was--found me a spot on the floor, passed right out.  Then she wakes me saying my public wants to hear from me.  Listen guys, I'm glad to have a public, glad to be with Suri and Stan, glad to have a full tummy and an empty bladder, but I gotta get back to sleep.  If they get me my own computer and email account, I'll let you in on my whole story, and I'll write it during the day.  If I have to share the writing space with Suri, I'm only saying what's politic.  After all, I sleep in a crate, not a bed.  That's a little something I have to work on.