my double-layered coat of the finest dog hairs around

All dogs are shaved before surgery or for other procedures, such as the Fetanyl patch. But the dog’s hair doesn’t always grow back in. Why is that?   *******

four months after surgery

It’s now been five months since I was hit by the car!   And it’s been four months since Dr. Matt operated to repair my broken ankle.

I’m a happy dog again.  No more plastic bags on my leg, no more leads just to go out to our back yard.

But everywhere I go, people still look at me and go “What happened there?”  They ask, “What’s the square on my back?”

Of all the places where I was shaved, the one spot on my back where I was grounded is still not fully grown in. My leg is much more grown in, and the place where the Fetanyl patch was is still kind of noticeable. Noticeable by people, that is. I don’t care.

But be that as it may, this prompts my mom to learn about a dog’s hair. This prompts my mom to learn about the coat of a Labrador Retriever.  This prompts my mom to learn about, in short, me.

My parents looked at my back very close up and they noticed that I have two layers of hair!  One layer has already grown back. That is the under layer.  It’s course and very short. This is the layer that keeps me warm in cold weather, so that I don’t have to wear that silly coat that my parents bought me that I kept kicking off.  It also keeps me cool in the summer, by keeping the sun off of my skin.

The outer layer is the longer layer that has not grown back.  That’s the layer, that Dr. Kiko would call my “guard hair”, that protects me from rain. And bugs. That’s the hair that people pet and say “It’s so soft.” That’s the layer that makes people call me a “Chocolate”.

So why hasn’t my outer layer of hair grown back? I don’t know and I don’t care. But my mom cares, and she learned that the they don’t grow back very easily in older dogs.  But I act like a puppy. That should matter somewhat.  Apparently, it doesn’t matter.

But there is another reason why the outer layer of hair on my back has not yet grown in.  The hair follicles are very deep along the spine of a dog, so it takes them much longer to grow in.  One vet said that it may take another cycle of shedding for them to grow in. Again, not that I car.  In fact, I think my parents don’t really care either. They just like knowing and understanding about me.

But on the bright side, what this means is that I’m going to get a lot of attention for a long long time, as people stop and point to me and ask, “Why is that there?” ! And that’s okay with me!

Getting attention is one of my hobbies, remember?