Dog situation

I've gotten emails from back home asking how my foster dog is doing. In case others of you wonder, too...

He is much better. The infection cleared up, but the claw will never grow back. He was in pain and pretty subdued for a while there. He didn't seem to have confidence walking and was losing his balance. The lack of walks made us both crazy. The vet told me to get a "dog sock" for him, and I finally did. There's not much to it, but it really seems to help. We're back to one or even two walks along the our shoreline path. He doesn't even put up much of a fight against having me put it on, and he doesn't try to take it off, either. I feel a bit silly walking along and then having to pull up the dog's sock. It starts conversations. Today he actually got excited when I produced the sock, so perhaps he is associating it with either comfort or a walk or both. See photo--I didn't mess with iphoto to get rid of the red eye (or is it blue?).