Winston day 29

Well I'm sure everyone wants a Winston update. His brace came off 8 days ago and Mr. Scaredy Cat did not like the cutting and ripping of the tape. I (little, tiny me) had to hold Winston's head still while John cut and tried not to stab Winston in the neck when he jerked away from me.

His brace was very thick and I must have been just the right amount of crazy because his skin didn't rot.

I'm not noticing huge amounts of progress, but I have to keep telling myself that it takes time. Winston will now walk through most of the upstairs with confidence and if he wants to stand up (he's a poop in the morning and would just rather sleep) he can usually do it in one try whereas before it would be at least 6 tries with lots of coaxing from me.
He still has his dreaded rooms, the office and bathroom, that I just haven't had the energy to tackle yet. He also hasn't decided that he wants to join us in the family room downstairs and I don't force it.

On Saturday I took him on one of his pre-bad walks, it's roughly 15 minutes and when he started getting bad he'd drag his front feet 5 minutes into it so we stopped. He seemed very happy to be out in the brisk late fall air and had more energy than I've seen in a while.
Winston was still all over the place while walking and probably looked like a gave him some strong liquor before the walk since he weaved next to my leg.
His scaredy cat ways are really draining though and I'm not sure if they'll go away on their own. While on the walk an elderly couple wanted to pet Winston, right after I said that he was very friendly and they took a step forward Winston jerked back. Luckily a truck was parked and stopped him/cornered him and gave me a second to figure out what he was scared of. The lady had a freaking grocery sack (filled with dog treats of all things!) and it terrified him. Once she handed him one of the treats he tentatively took a step forward to the man and decided that the situation was okay. Looks like John and I will have to start desensitizing him or he'll keep embarrassing me in public...sigh...

One comment that a vet tech made while we were getting Winston's ears fixed has really stuck with and bothers me. She asked, "Are you guys sure that you'll want to and be able to keep up with this [wobblers]?" Um...we drove 3,000 miles round trip to Indiana and emptied our savings account for him, yes I'm pretty sure.

Anywho, back to the walk, Winston kept prancing away from me until the leash tugged and then settling back to my side. Never pulling, but having a surprisingly good amount of energy. He did start dragging his front feet once we hit out street again, but that's an improvement to me. Once home he crashed, Winston's not used to any amount of activity so we have to build him back up.

My next project will be getting him a bath which he desperately needs. By the way, does anyone know of a self service place with tubs on the ground? I'm sure a ramp is something he'll be scared of and we'll make a huge scene trying to get Winston up it.