Well, this first week with Monty has been both eventful AND uneventful. Does that make sense? Let me try to explain and you can decide for yourself.
The timing on actually bringing Monty home was a bit wonky. We brought him home on Monday, and his new Papa had to go into Portland (1.5 hrs away) for surgery on Wednesday. So that left only Monday evening and all day Tuesday for Monty’s new Mama and Papa to try to get to know him. Wednesday we put him in a large playpen set up we have, with soft absorbable pads on the floor, a bowl of water (he already ate breakfast), his kennel, and toys (both chewy and shreddy). We left the house around 8:30am and I got back home around 8pm (Mama and Papa stayed behind in Portland – they are coming home today). He was understandably slightly on the hysterical side. It broke my heart and I actually cried while making dinner for him and all his compatriots. After everyone was fed and pottied, I just sat in the armchair for a couple of hours, holding Monty and his new brother Bruiser while we watched episodes of Frasier on NetFlix and just cuddled the heck out of each other. It took him about a half hour to calm down, but when he did he didn’t seem any worse for wear.
I didn’t leave the house again until yesterday (Monday) and I took the black & tans with me this time. He was worried and cried a bit at the beginning of his trip, even though we were told that he loves to go bye-bye. But I think his fear is rooted in the fact that he was shifted around from person to person – all in order to give him the best care and attention while staying at the vets office – and I think he was thinking, “CRAP! I was just getting used to these people and now I’m going somewhere else AGAIN!”
My hypothesis seemed to ring true when we arrived home again after a trip to the bank and the grocery store; he was so excited when he realized that we came back to the same house! He scooted around and around in circles in the living room and barked happily. It was so adorable!
He and Bruiser get along just fine, for as much as Bruiser will actually interact with him. Bruiser is able to get around better than Monty, and usually will jump up on the couch or in the recliner to snooze. Monty is more…um…not aggressive but…um…assertive! Yes, more assertive than Bruiser. He wants so badly for Bruiser to play with him, but for now Bruiser isn’t having it. If you were to compare the two personalities, Bruiser is more like Niles Crane and Monty is more like Jean-Claude Van Damme if he’d been in an accident and was now a paraplegic. Bruiser is lighter in weight and finer boned; Monty looks like he was a weight lifter at some point before his accident. His shoulders are quite broad and he is quite muscular across his upper back, probably from the weeks of being in his cart and having to use his upper body strength to make himself mobile. He sure is a handsome boy!
We are still working with his incontinence issues. With Bruiser we used baby diapers and the belly bands to deal with the urine, but this has caused a small sore to appear on Monty’s inner leg. I am treating it and trying to keep diapers off of him as much as I can, but then this means I have to keep him in the stroller with washable absorbent pads in it (and toys and a blanket).
I hate making him stay in that since he is still currently sleeping in his kennel at night (which he HATES). I want him to be able to scoot around and play! So today I am trying a Poise pad turned long ways, running from the base of his tail to his chest, and then using the belly band around him at the location of his wally-wally to secure it. I’ll see how that works. The poop issue is starting to get to me; I feel like all I have done this week is pick up turds and wash smashed poop off of my clothes. He mostly poops during the middle of the night when he is confined to his kennel. This is, as you can imagine, not so pleasant for him, and results in me giving him a spit bath to clean up his tail and poo issuing region. During the day, pea and acorn sized turds appear randomly throughout the house as if sprinkled there by some demented poop fairy. Grrrr! I am sure that this will resolve itself with time, but I am really glad that his Mama and Papa are coming home today so that they may also enjoy the fun of the turd hunts. 
So, I would have to say his first week in his new forever home was mostly uneventful. Whatever the issues are, they will work out with time, and we are very happy to have him here.
YAY MONTY!
The timing on actually bringing Monty home was a bit wonky. We brought him home on Monday, and his new Papa had to go into Portland (1.5 hrs away) for surgery on Wednesday. So that left only Monday evening and all day Tuesday for Monty’s new Mama and Papa to try to get to know him. Wednesday we put him in a large playpen set up we have, with soft absorbable pads on the floor, a bowl of water (he already ate breakfast), his kennel, and toys (both chewy and shreddy). We left the house around 8:30am and I got back home around 8pm (Mama and Papa stayed behind in Portland – they are coming home today). He was understandably slightly on the hysterical side. It broke my heart and I actually cried while making dinner for him and all his compatriots. After everyone was fed and pottied, I just sat in the armchair for a couple of hours, holding Monty and his new brother Bruiser while we watched episodes of Frasier on NetFlix and just cuddled the heck out of each other. It took him about a half hour to calm down, but when he did he didn’t seem any worse for wear.
I didn’t leave the house again until yesterday (Monday) and I took the black & tans with me this time. He was worried and cried a bit at the beginning of his trip, even though we were told that he loves to go bye-bye. But I think his fear is rooted in the fact that he was shifted around from person to person – all in order to give him the best care and attention while staying at the vets office – and I think he was thinking, “CRAP! I was just getting used to these people and now I’m going somewhere else AGAIN!”
My hypothesis seemed to ring true when we arrived home again after a trip to the bank and the grocery store; he was so excited when he realized that we came back to the same house! He scooted around and around in circles in the living room and barked happily. It was so adorable!
He and Bruiser get along just fine, for as much as Bruiser will actually interact with him. Bruiser is able to get around better than Monty, and usually will jump up on the couch or in the recliner to snooze. Monty is more…um…not aggressive but…um…assertive! Yes, more assertive than Bruiser. He wants so badly for Bruiser to play with him, but for now Bruiser isn’t having it. If you were to compare the two personalities, Bruiser is more like Niles Crane and Monty is more like Jean-Claude Van Damme if he’d been in an accident and was now a paraplegic. Bruiser is lighter in weight and finer boned; Monty looks like he was a weight lifter at some point before his accident. His shoulders are quite broad and he is quite muscular across his upper back, probably from the weeks of being in his cart and having to use his upper body strength to make himself mobile. He sure is a handsome boy!
We are still working with his incontinence issues. With Bruiser we used baby diapers and the belly bands to deal with the urine, but this has caused a small sore to appear on Monty’s inner leg. I am treating it and trying to keep diapers off of him as much as I can, but then this means I have to keep him in the stroller with washable absorbent pads in it (and toys and a blanket).
I hate making him stay in that since he is still currently sleeping in his kennel at night (which he HATES). I want him to be able to scoot around and play! So today I am trying a Poise pad turned long ways, running from the base of his tail to his chest, and then using the belly band around him at the location of his wally-wally to secure it. I’ll see how that works. The poop issue is starting to get to me; I feel like all I have done this week is pick up turds and wash smashed poop off of my clothes. He mostly poops during the middle of the night when he is confined to his kennel. This is, as you can imagine, not so pleasant for him, and results in me giving him a spit bath to clean up his tail and poo issuing region. During the day, pea and acorn sized turds appear randomly throughout the house as if sprinkled there by some demented poop fairy. Grrrr! I am sure that this will resolve itself with time, but I am really glad that his Mama and Papa are coming home today so that they may also enjoy the fun of the turd hunts. So, I would have to say his first week in his new forever home was mostly uneventful. Whatever the issues are, they will work out with time, and we are very happy to have him here.YAY MONTY!
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