Reggie doesn’t frequently do something that surprises me. After a few years, he’s pretty predictable. Until tonight.

As I was getting ready to go to bed, I came out of the bathroom only to find him all curled up on top of my pillows. And he was looking pretty proud of himself.

Reggie has never been one to sleep on my pillows, he prefers to make his bed on top of blankets. But tonight, he decided he liked the pillows, with their clean linens.

Reggie and I spent the weekend visiting Buddy and Brutus.

Tonight, I had my duffel bag on the couch, and it was open. Reggie sniffed it, and decided that’s where he wanted to curl up for a while.

And that’s exactly what he did. Really, could this get any cuter?

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Since Reggie and I live in the Halloween capital of the universe, it’s only appropriate that he have a costume to wear.

I picked this up at Petco yesterday. He’s going to poop in my shoes for this.

We just got back from our trip to the South Boston Animal Hospital. This is quite possibly one of the least pleasant trips we’ve had to the vet, and Dr. Waggener makes it easier to handle.

We got there and took the e-collar off and his neck was really icky with slime. She knew right away that it was a hot spot. She started shaving the area, and Reggie was none too thrilled. She gave him an injection of Torbutrol and he calmed done quite a bit. She shaved down the area and scrubbed it. Her assistant also cleaned out his ears, which is where the the problem started.

Dr. Waggener didn’t find puncture marks, so my theory of Wyle biting him was incorrect. She thinks the problem started with his ear infection. I owe the puppy upstairs a few cookies.

She wants me to clean his wound twice a day with peroxide. He gets Mometamax for the ear infection, Temaril-P for the hot spot, and Simplicef as an antibiotic. On top of that, I also picked up a three month supply of his heartworm meds. He’s going to continue wearing the e-collar for a few days to prevent him from scratching the area to make it worse.

He’s pretty zonked out now and she tells me he’ll sleep well tonight.

Reggie’s e-collar was a bit… obtrusive. So I went all MacGyver on it and trimmed it down. It still serves its purpose and it now allows him to eat. Never underestimate what one can do with a power drill and a pair of sharp scissors.

I was still concerned about Reggie’s wound, and I called this morning. The assistant put Dr. Waggener on the phone with me. We talked for a few minutes about what’s going on and she told me how to care for it. She tells me that it’s good to use the e-collar to prevent him from making the situation worse. It sounds to her that it’s created what she called a hot spot. Dr. Waggener does want to see Reggie, so we’re going in tomorrow evening.

With my own health issues, I see my doctors as partners in my care, and that’s how I feel about Dr. Waggener. She’s my partner in taking care of Reggie’s health.

This morning I put 25 ml of Metacam into his kibble, hoping that will make him feel a little better. That’s about half of what he was getting when he had back problems. I also went to PetSmart and got an e-collar to prevent him from scratching at it.

He hates the thing, and I feel bad putting it on him. At the same time, he needs to stop scratching at the wound, or it won’t heal. Worse, it’ll get infected.

The poor guy is a little uncomfortable. I might put a few drops of metacam on his kibble in the morning.

I noticed this morning that Reggie has some kind of a sore on the side of his face. While I’m not sure what happened, I’m going to guess that an over-eager puppy upstairs could have done this. We do know that Wyle and Reggie are both current on all their shots.

My first instinct was to to call the vet, but I’m going to wait a day or two and try some good old-fashioned TLC. I cleaned the wound with some peroxide and it certainly foamed up a bit. If it’s not looking better by Sunday night, I’ll call the vet Monday morning.

Reggie certainly wasn’t thrilled with my cleaning the wound, but he quickly learned that letting me clean it would earn him a cookie. It’s amazing what this little guy will do for a treat.