He's all unstapled. We got there 2 hours early
I thought we might, but if you live in Northern VA, you know how if you run into traffic, it can add a couple hours to that trip easily. Luckily, they were able to see him when we got there at 9am.
He is doing great. He knew on the way to the vet he was going somewhere and was very concerned. I held him and sung to him all the way there, but on the way back, he knew he was going back home and just enjoyed the ride in the car -- riding in the back of the Santa Fe with the seats down looking out, laying down, just being really confident.
He is on Hills Science Diet U/D, which thankfully he loves! He comes bounding into the kitchen in the morning when he gets 1/2 a can of it, and then at night, he gets a cup of the dry version of the same food (hand fed) which we call "Winston's Special Cookie" and he loves it and the special hand feeding. He's a hambone.
One positive thing for me through this -- not worth it, but a small good thing, is that he's decided he wants to sleep at least part of the night in this travel cage. Probably feels like it's a little cave just for him. It's right beside H's side of the bed. He spends part of the night in that travel crate and part on his pillow which is between H's and my pillow but the good part for me about the crate sleeping is that you would be really surprised to know how loud a 15# shih-tzu can snore and he's been skinny until now but is now getting real filled out so I bet he'll get even louder. So many times each night, I have to wake him up to get him to move and then try to beat him back to sleep because I can't fall asleep when he's snoring (but it won't wake me if I'm asleep when he starts).