Last night was a very good but very emotional night for me. I was able to bring Gracie out of the basement and get her collar off for several hours. I did block off the living room and kitchen from the rest of the house so that she couldn’t go too far though. She spent most of the night hiding and seemed a little scared of me, but that is understandable, at least I’m telling myself that. She did make herself comfortable and nodded off a few times. She hasn’t tried playing with her stitches at all. Around 9 I took her downstairs to her spot in the basement. Again, I’ve blocked off a section for her but it seems to be the place she likes the best, by her litter box where I first brought her when she came home. Their she ate (salmon!) and drank lots of water (I’m super happy that she is eating). Then the tough part when I put her back in her collar for the evening and went to bed. This was super hard for me. I even thought of sleeping in the basement close to her but I wasn’t sure how she would react and wanted to give her space. To be honest, I cried myself to bed.
I did mostly get a good night sleep. I think the mental exhaustion of helping her caught up to me. Today I came downstairs to find her on the stairwell of the basement!! I’m hoping she is finally figuring out how to navigate the collar. Again, I took the collar off for a bit and gave her breakfast which she ate up. I then sat with her for a bit and she let me play with her a little. (I think she’s really mad with me!). I put her back in the collar after about an hour and she mostly stayed in the basement all day. I’m trying to set a schedule with her for next week since I have to go back to work. It’s been really hard trying to ignore all day but I’ve taken a few peeks here and there. I did give her another dose of her pain meds. They make her loopy so I’m hoping that helps.
I plan to repeat last night and today again this evening. She should get around 4 hours without the collar every evening next week. I’m already looking forward to the week being over and Gracie being healed up. This experience is taking a major toll on me mentally. Thank goodness I have counseling on Friday.