Today was bittersweet.  She is such a smart girl, but she still has a LONG way to go!  Her drain came out and I didn't hear so much as a whine from her when the vet pulled her into the other room to remove the archaic looking plastic tube from her back.  Unfortunately, she thought is was her duty to make sure that any other animal who came in to visit the vet's office knew who she was.  

I'm very cautious with her around other dogs right now because of the multiple stitches/sutures, and because she hasn't learned dog etiquette yet.  You're supposed to sniff each others' butts first, not stare each other down and launch at their face in an excited attempt to kiss them on the face.  While some humans may find this behaviour endearing, most dogs find it threatening.

I started the day worried about how she was doing in the crate, since I am trying to train her to sleep in the crate.  It's a little inconvenient since I'm used to waking up around 9ish on Saturday mornings and not at 7am on the dot.  She did well last night...no pee and no major damage in the cage.  Tonight is a different story.  As I write this I can hear her finally giving up on the whining after I put her in the cage a few minutes ago.

 Probably the most endearing memory from today came at nap time...my nap time.  As I mentioned, I was up WAY too early for a Saturday morning, so I started to catch a few z's on the couch next to her bed after we got back from the vet's office.  We both fell asleep, but I was fortunate enough to awake to kiss on the mouth in the middle of my nap.  My frustration turned to endearment after talking with Ryan.  He made me realize that she was probably making sure I was still alive since I have a nasty habit of stopping respiration (the doctors call it "sleep apnea") in the middle of my sleep.  She probably noticed that something was wrong when I stopped snoring for a while!  What a trip.