12_21 Update

Elvis got his first dose of steroids today. So far. So good. He'll be on them for the next 3 1/2 weeks. It's Prednisone, so he gets a full dose (half a 5 mg tablet) for four days, then eight days of 1/3 tablet and then two weeks of 1/4 tablet.

Since it takes a few days to kick in, I doubt we'll see much in the way of improvement until Thursday or so. I have hopes this will help his wheezing and coughing.

Randall and I had my dad and stepmom over today for a gift exchange, and I wasn't sure how Elvis would do since there would be packages and tissue paper. Lots of rattling stuff tends to make him nervous.

Everyone was crated when they first came in and then we put up the gates and let everyone out of the crates so they could be in here in the den, loose but hearing the noises. When we took the gate down from the kitchen into the living room, Haley and Skeeter came right in (they'd been up at the gate and Elvis had been with them). Elvis came in and skittered around a bit, ran out of the room and then came right back in.

Randall picked him up and put him in the chair with me where he watched while I took stuff out of bags and had tissue paper rattling around, and he did beautifully. He was sort of big-eyed, but more out of curiosity than anything else. When I was done and he'd had a chance to sniff stuff, he promptly curled up and took a nap.

We were really proud of how he handled himself. He only wheezed and coughed a couple of times, but not loudly and not for long. He just continues to surprise us when he's asked to handle situations that are different than the usual. We don't push or stress him, but when he can move at his own pace, he really does well. A far, far cry from how he was five months ago.

I suspect I won't post another update until later this week. My mom is coming in from Dallas on Friday, so I'll try to get something up on Thursday...hopefully I'll have news about the steroid treatment.