00:00the first thing you ought to know about Steve is that Steve hates socks or you
00:10know he hates when people are wearing socks he doesn't care about the socks on
00:14their own he doesn't care about feet but as soon as you put the socks on it is on
00:18site with Steve if he knows you're wearing socks he will stop at nothing to
00:22get you the second thing you ought to know about Steve is that Steve is very
00:28snuggly he's always following me around asking for me to pick him up and I do
00:33I'm always picking him up and snuggling him which is why I was pretty quick to
00:38notice when he developed a big lump in his lower abdomen
00:46after a trip to the vet and a bunch of tests Steve was diagnosed with splenomegaly
00:51which is a fancy way of saying big spleen but that it didn't have a clear cause
00:56and that medical intervention wasn't necessary as long as it wasn't
00:59impacting his quality of life and that was fine because it wasn't impacting his
01:04quality of life until you know one day it was
01:12the vet staff and myself had a long discussion about how I needed to prepare
01:26for the surgery they told me to pack his favorite snack with him so he won't be
01:31hungry when he wakes up they said he'll need to be kept separated from his friends
01:34while he heals so they don't try to gnaw his stitches off I asked them how do I
01:38keep him from gnawing his own stitches and they said they don't usually chew on
01:41their own stitches but if he does he'll have to wear a tube sock with arm holes
01:45cut out of it now you'll remember from earlier that sock wearers are his sworn
01:50enemy I imagine that having to wear one himself would bring great shame to him
01:55I drop him off at the clinic at 7 30 a.m. with a snack and his favorite toy I'm
02:03told I should expect a call sometime later in the afternoon to tell me how it
02:06went it's 11 in the morning I'm packing their food in the freezer and I get a
02:10phone call from the vet he says I'm gonna give you an early Christmas present
02:16this was right before Christmas by the way he said the surgery went great Steve
02:20is awake now and he ate the snack you packed for him you can come pick him up
02:23anytime after 3 p.m. the hard part is over you can relax at 3 30 p.m. I bring
02:30Steve home with some pain medicine and a post-op instruction sheet keep him from his
02:34friends for five days restrict his exercise for 10 days don't let him
02:37gnaw lest he succumb to the dreaded tube sock for the first time in a long while
02:42he was able to walk again with his hind end a little too tall because he was used
02:47to more weight in the back I slept by him that night to make sure that he
02:51didn't have to wear that sock in the next few days he mostly did a lot of
02:57sleeping while his friend oatmeal stood like one inch away from his cage I guess
03:01just wishing for him to get better after what felt like an eternity but in
03:07reality was five days Steve could finally see his beloved friends again and well
03:13oh my goodness Steve alright you gotta chill out you gotta chill out
03:21so now he's with his friends again and they follow him around to love on him and
03:26kiss him and cuddle him and just be around him while he recovers his best friend
03:30princess especially sticks by him and sleeps on top of him like a little bed
03:34the vet calls me sometime later with Steve's pathology report he said I'm
03:38going to give you a late Christmas present and rattled off a bunch of
03:41medical stuff but the important part was that there was no evidence of neoplasia
03:44which is a fancy way of saying he's cancer free and that he can now be
03:48considered fully cured it's a few months later I'm working at my desk and I'm
03:59wearing socks because it's cold I hear those little footsteps getting louder and
04:03louder until I feel sharp little teeth and claws on my toes and that's fine I'm
04:09just glad to hear those footsteps again and I'm glad that he can still stay by me
04:15to make sure that I don't have to wear socks
04:20you
04:23you
04:25you
04:27you
04:29you
04:31you
04:33you
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04:37you
04:52you
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