Great ideas ! The vet gave her Rimadyl for pain and antibiotics (just incase) Right now - I put a sock over her bandage . ( one of my old ones that I bought way too small. ) I taped the top and so far she hasn't bothered it. DH & I have to be gone tonight for about 4 hours - I just know the little stinker is waiting till we leave to have at it. I think I'm going to do what was suggested - go get some bandage stuff and wrap her foot up really good . At least this time if she tugs at it while we're gone - it'll take her till we get home to get it off. I'm off to check the site on how to wrap it. Thanks sooo much for the help . Believe me - she is never going NEAR our gate again (wasn't closed tightly )and she saw a dog across the street . Totally our fault and I'm sure we'll feel guilty about this the rest of our lives.Anyway - I'm so glad I have this forum to help me ! ((everyone))

Update: Things apear to be going well. The hole in his chest is beginning to heal from the inside out, I think (hard to tell since I see it 2x a day). Talk about a couple of crazy ol' folks....here's the image of DH and I doing his hydrotherapy. The only place we can do it is in the bathroom due to the cold weather. That bath is galley or hall shape, long and skinny. We put him on a thin piece of foam that's covered with an absorbent bathmat. I sit on the side of the tub and for 10-15 minutes spray tepid water directly into the wound. About every 30 seconds I stop and dump the runoff out of the cake pan we are using as a catch basin. It's a 9x14, glass and VERY heavy as I lift and twist to dump it in the tub. About 50% of the time, he lays down so far from the tub that I do the spraying leaning forward as far as possible. This happens twice a day, with the first treatment at 4:45AM so DH can get to work by 6. While we're stressing, Poco dozes off! By the time we have him dried and re-dressed the whole process takes 30-45 minutes. BUT, we've got the cleanest bathroom floor in town! LOL!! Got to walk him for the first time yesterday...not far, just a couple of blocks, but it's a start. You should've seen the looks we got from passers-by! Don't understand it...haven't they ever seen a big dog in a sleevless t-shirt strolling down the sidewalk before?!?!? Thanx for your continuing prayers! They're certainly helping him and us! Pat

(((alisande))) Here, I'll make it the third one? Maybe. I was driving home the other day, and I had a blowout! Not just a flat tire. We heard BANG! and I said, what was that? He said maybe we ran over a rock? And then the car started to try to swerve. I did keep control and then I heard it--a flat tire. As I pulled over, it was smoking! Smelled like burned rubber to me, and it practically welded the tire to the axle?! What's worse? I just got the car in July (used, it's 18 years old) and I hadn't checked the spare to make sure it fit and was in good shape :O The equipment to change the tire didn't really fit or work well :( The jack would only turn a half turn at a time. The tire iron was too long? It kept hitting the ground. What was cool though? Someone else had fixed a flat in the exact same spot, and accidentally left a tire iron-that fit my bolts. I had another shorter tire iron, but it too, did not fit. So it took three tire irons, a lot of turning for the jack, and holding my breath for the tire to work. Yep, the tire turned out ok. I had planned to buy new tires next month, but now, I will have new tires this weekend. Two more days instead of two more weeks... hurray! Back to normal then. Whew. Now, we don't need a third car incident. How's that for closing the loop? Well, I tried!

big deal.. how about breaking the leader off a $100 conifer.. taking it out of the car.. or when planting it .. lol my mind set with perennials is that i am buying a root mass for the future .. and the big show is next year on .. whatever i get this season.. is just an extra ... BTW ... when anything has more than one stem.. cut one.. leave one.. stake one.. see what happens ... there is always next year ... ken