Marty’s photo of the day #4638: I blindly shot this photo through my legs this morning. I thought about straightening it in my photo program, but I think it’s funnier tilted. As many of you know, Nellie had TPLO surgery on her left rear leg on November 1. That surgery involved removing her cranial cruciate ligament, refitting the bone in her knee, and holding everything together with a metal plate and six screws. I call it her “bionic leg.”

The hardest parts of Nellie’s recovery are the first few weeks and the last few weeks. We’ve now entered the last few weeks stage. Deb and I are still sleeping on the floor with Nellie (though we’ve moved from the pullout couch mattress in the great room to our king-sized bed mattress in our bedroom), and Nellie still has to be on a leash. But otherwise she’s back to her normal routine.

The final steps will be putting our mattress back in the bed (requiring Nellie to make a relatively high jump) and letting her run off-leash at Warp 9. This is the first week with consecutive days of Nellie not limping at all. And as you can see, she is ready to go!

Yes, holding Nellie back for the next few weeks is going to be extremely difficult. I’m as eager for her to run as she is!