In happy news, about a year late and the day itself was pretty traumatic for him and myself, BUT Ned has been desexed and recovered!
Every dog and cat I've ever lived with has been desexed but this was the first time it was MY baby first and foremost, and the first time I was one of the 'responsible' 'adults' of the situation. So I was stressed as fuck leading up to the operation, of course during it, and for the first couple of days after it. The day of the operation was pretty horrible, I might go into that more at some point, but right now this is about good news, so!
Ned is doing great! The first day of course he was drugged out of his mind and it was a challenge just getting him home. I spent the evening sitting with his head on my lap and Ron suggested that night I take his side of the bed (closer to where Ned sleeps) which I did, and spent half the night checking on him. Am I a helicopter parent? Maybe.
BUT on the third day Ned was entirely back to his old self, and had already figured out how to stretch around two different cones and an inflatable donut to lick at his wound, which is how the introduction of sriracha sauce came to be. My mum used to be a vet nurse and suggested 'unpalatable' stuff around the wound. Vinegar, it turns out, doesn't phase Ned AT ALL, but spicy shit does. And again, got advice from my once vet nurse mum, she assured me spicy stuff wouldn't hurt his wound, which it clearly didn't.
Meanwhile he has gone entirely stir crazy not getting walked every day for TWO WEEKS and attempted to (play) fight Ron for (joke) punching my boobs. We tested this and he still tried to fight Ron about it the following six times.
Hopefully from tomorrow I can walk Ned again. He does have the dissolvable stitches (because the vet didn't want to deal with him again) that haven't fully gone yet so that may slow things down a little. But overall we're doing well and Ned is thriving and hopefully soon we can socialise him with people outside the family he met as a puppy.