On Saturday morning, Joey reports: Just got off the phone with Connie T. and she'd like me to report - as best I can remember - what she told me. Please excuse any variation of the truth. It is not intentional! Surgery was four-and-a-half hours long yesterday. Took some doing, but the leg is set and wired, including a fragment that was floating where it didn't belong, so the doctor fished it back to its place and wired it there. The leg had started to grow more bone where the break was, so when put in place it doesn't fit 100% - more like 75%. (Makes me think of when I try to reattach previously- [sometimes often-] broken parts of my ceramic Airedales or turtles and the places where the glue has built up I never quite manage to get back to the "bare" ceramic . . . so it doesn't quite fit anymore.) Where the pieces of the leg join, it's quite ragged at the moment, but will calcify over and that will eliminate the rough edges. The tumor was taken off completely - with a little of the surrounding tissue - so that there is not a trace of it left and should heal nicely. The ear was scoped and the doctor could see the ear drum. I don't think I realized that the problem with the ear was that a wild boar had sliced Kekoa from the ear opening down to the jugular vein. The infection in the neck was not healing well ([it] was a terrible mess when he was picked up initially) because the fluids from the infection which resulted from the ear canal being sliced was draining down into the pocket of the neck wound. The ear canal appears to be healing on its own and, although there may come a time down the line when further treatment may be necessary, the doctor does not think so. The neck wound was cleaned and tended to. I can't recall what all was involved in that. I am especially impressed that the doctor called Connie on Friday night after all was done - and talked for 45 minutes or so - explaining everything he did and giving absolute, explicit instructions as to how things were to be done for Kekoa . . . including how many times he was allowed to go "out" per day (only three) - and that he must be on a leash and kept in an x-pen of no larger than 6' x 6' . . . and the inside must be "wrapped" in cloth so that there is no danger of the apparatus holding his leg together can get caught on the wire of the x-pen. Connie & Gordon will follow the "rules" to the letter, let me assure you. Oh - and when they go to pick him up (tonight or Monday), they are to bring an aireline crate, unassembled. Kekoa, who is wearing an Elizabethan collar, is to be placed [by the vet techs] in the bottom of the crate and the "lid" will then be replaced and screwed on. They will reverse that when they reach home, to get him out. We have no bill yet - and we have no idea how much money is in his "account" already, but will cross that bridge after Christine has returned home from the Rolling for Rescue Airedale Fundraiser, had time to catch her breath and opens her mail. Thank you all for caring!

CONTINUE WITH THE STORY OF KEKOA HERE