Ziva is pretty much back to her old self this morning.

Yesterday morning Ziva met Dr. F, a new vet, and Ziva loved her immediately, but she loves everyone. I really liked the new vet, too; although, I refrained from leaning my head against the vet’s leg and nuzzling her.

I had been nervous about having a stranger examine Ziva because she already has two other vets, Dr. J. and Dr. M., who treat her. I wanted Ziva to see one of the vets who currently care for her. But now we have three wonderful vets to choose from, which might make it easier to get an appointment when we need one.

From Tuesday, when I made Ziva’s vet appointment, until Thursday, when Ziva saw the vet, she had improved. However, I had videos on my phone to show the vet, so she could see how poorly Ziva had been moving in the previous days. The vet examined Ziva and determined that she most likely had a soft-tissue injury that needed to heal. The vet recommended increasing Ziva’s Librela shots for her osteoarthritis from every four weeks to every three weeks, giving her a three-to-five-day course of an anti-inflammatory medicine, and monitoring her movements.

Monitoring Ziva’s movements is the tricky part. Because when she feels better, she likes to run up the side of the house. She likes to run out to the front yard and prance around while she barks at a squirrel scrambling up a tree or a passing dog or the neighbor who is once again for the zillionth time mowing his lawn. Right now, I cringe when I watch her do these things, so I’ve been taking her outside on her leash. She’s limited to a couple of walks a day, but only around the block, which suits her just fine. And if I take her in the car, I put her on the leash and walk her to the back passenger door, so she can’t dance, prance, and spin in happy circles because she’s excited for a ride.

The reality is that while Ziva’s doing much better, going forward we’ll have to take care with her by limiting her exposure to situations where she could reinjure herself. But we’ll also have to make sure she is living the best life she can. This includes making sure she moves because “move it or loose it” applies to dogs too.