It was the first night back from the hospital last night. Kaiju woke us up about 3 hours after the regular “good night” ritual (giving him a little food in the crate, petting him, and closing the crate door) with some intense whining. We did not experience this even during the first few days of his first arrival back in January. Sure he whined, but not this loudly and not this persistently. We have always been pretty good about ignoring him when he does this, so he has been very quick to give up too. Last night, it was a different story. He just would not quit crying. He managed to get us over to his crate to check on him. We looked in and saw nothing unusual. We left him there, and went back to sleep with ear plugs. A few hours later, I woke up and heard nothing from his crate other than his breathing.

Was he scared? Needy because of the pain or the hospital experience, or the awful cone around his face? (I imagine having that Elizabethan Cone is like having our arms tied up.) The pain medication was administered at dinner time, so I would think it was not the pain. We will see how he does tonight. We will be better about not going over there tonight, too.

update

Ah-ha, I found this thread online. Apparently, the pain med that he’s on sometimes gives dogs anxiety. On top of the e-cone, that may have been the reason he was so apprehensive in his crate last night. The vet who sent us home with it didn’t tell us about this side effect, either. (11:20pm)

sleeeeepy