Pence Gets a Pedicure and Goes on Her First Walk Since Surgery

It's been two weeks since Pence's spay and she's doing great! She went on her first walk and got a pedicure to help her form slipping on the hardwood floor.

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Hello! Hannah here with an update on Pence. It was another relatively quiet week in the Urban Mushers household. And that is exactly what we were hoping for in Pence’s recovery - nothing exciting, scary, or unusual.

Her incision continues to heal perfectly. She is definitely more interested in it now, but has left it alone for the most part, because she’s the goodest girl. She is now allowed to jump up and down on the furniture as she pleases, which I’m sure she is happy about lol.

She does have a little bit of a hesitation jumping down from the bed now, which she didn’t have previously. It is a further stretch for her, so maybe something inside her becomes a little sore or stretched from it. Or perhaps she’s a diva and has gotten used to us lifting her up and down and wants to be lazy!

The weather has been really crappy here lately, and has rained most of the days since her surgery. Under strict guidelines to not get her incision wet or risk contamination, Pence has been inside 99% of the time. And 10 days inside, doing nothing can get boring for a sled dog.

On day 10 post-surgery and when the rain finally stopped, I thought it would be a good idea to take her on a short, calm walk. Figured she could use some fresh air, new smells, and stretch her legs.

Because it was dark, and because I really wanted to use it again, I put her new LightHound harness on her from Noxgear! We used the flashing, color-changing mode for the walk. She probably didn’t care, but I thought she looked cool and people could see us from a long distance away.

She was super excited to get the harness and leash on. Her first adventure in what I’m sure felt like forever. The first half of our walk was nice and calm, exactly how I’d hoped. Stopping to sniff mailboxes and street signs, trotting around, but not too much. And then we turned around to go back home.

We don’t know why, but every time we turn around to go back home, it’s like Pence kicks it into another gear. She pulls hard on the leash, zig zagging back and forth, jumping up, wanting to go faster. I had forgotten about that. That part was not the calm walk I had anticipated lol.

When we got back home, I checked her incision to make sure she didn’t tear anything open in her excitement, but she was fine! I think I worry too much…

In other news, I’m sure you’ve noticed it’s pretty warm outside right now and will be for the next week or two. Well, unless you’re in Alaska. Sorry Alaska. That’s what you signed up for though.

This week, it’s been in the 40s for highs and even the lower 50s, with lows around freezing. This is the type of weather I LOVE running the dogs in. It’s cool enough for them to run, and warm enough for me to not freeze my tail off.

But, of course Pence is still in recovery and Boo is at Beth’s, so no running here. We were hoping later this month to go up north to chase snow and try out our new sled with the dogs, but I’m not sure that will happen now or not. You may have heard that more big sled races including the UP200 were recently cancelled due to lack of snow. Huge bummer.

If winter finally decides to show up in the lower 48, we would love to still try out the sled. Fingers crossed! And Alaska, maybe send some of your cold and snow our way?

Pence gets a pedicure

We noticed recently that Pence has been slipping a little bit on our hardwood floors. We don’t want to cause any injuries from slipping. Or anymore injuries from slipping. Story coming soon in another newsletter ;)

I noticed that the fur between Pence’s toes and paw pads was pretty long and likely the cause of her recent slippage, so we decided to trim the fur. We did this by using one of Riley’s beard trimmers. This was the first time we’ve attempted it and she was definitely unsure of the noise at first. But she did WAY better than Boo would’ve, I’m sure of it. Watch the video below for her reaction.

Riley trimming the fur between Pence’s toes and paw pads

[VIDEO] Watch Pence get a pedicure and see how she’s recovering from surgery

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