I have to share what I found today. It made me laugh out loud and I hope you’ll get a giggle or two too. 🙂 I certainly NEEDED it.
Photo Source. Poor little critter…but I bet he liked the attention.
I really needed a laugh and this did the trick. They have chipmunk/hamster cheeks…lol. 🙂 Oh, the things our companions endure for our joy…sigh.
Can you believe it’s mid-November? I was just whining about summer’s heat and poof! It’s less than two weeks from Thanksgiving.
My friend who was my stalwart companion through my divorce and now through the knee surgery kindly invited me to spend Thanksgiving dinner with them. I was so delighted since I have spent it alone for the last seven years!
I’ll still cook a turkey since Von’s has their Safeway brand of 8-16 pound birds for $7.00 with a $30 purchase. Note: may or may not get one since it’s over a week away. Why do stores do this?
Anyhow, I put the “happy stuff” at the beginning of this post. Now onto the more difficult matters.
My Angel, my Blue. Is he not the sweetest little soul?
On a sad note, I will most likely be putting Blue to sleep (or sending him over the rainbow bridge on Monday, November 18, 2013 around 2 p.m.). He has hit “critical mass” as it were. About a week ago, I walked around the foot of the bed where he was sleeping with his back to me. As he heard me, he tried to lift himself and turn to look at me. Sadly his left front leg went out and he fell on his left shoulder with both front legs stretched straight out and his lower half rolled even further so that his rear legs aimed to the sky, twisted in a pirouette fashion. He didn’t move.
My Angel. Happily rolling in the grass.
In mere seconds I could see he really couldn’t move…paralyzed. I quickly “righted” him. Poor little guy, didn’t even seem to know it happened, just licked my hand. So the disease is advancing. Plus he can no longer make the six feet of patio to reach the grass where he used to roll with such joy. (see above photo)
He also is a constant “leaking machine”. For a while I could count on two to three major bladder blowouts per day. Now it can happen every 20 minutes. Certainly can’t stop giving him water. Clean up is rigorous and I have noted both of my knees crackling and crunching more and more as I bend over to clean up the messes (osteoarthritis and NO cartilage anywhere). But I will never complain. I don’t mind doing it since I love him to pieces.
My schedule and “his” for feeding/pooping/peeing have gone off the grid. He just poops and pees at any minute even if it was minutes ago. So there’s no “window” I can count on. Thus, I have to leave him outside for a large portion of the day and at night, lock him in an enclosed area (aka: laundry room or the bathroom). Fortunately as I’ve said before he must have been crate-trained because these smaller contained spaces seem to calm him immensely.
Sheer Happiness.
On Friday, we had a sudden, unpredicted downpour while he was outside. Since he is a house dog, he does not take well to being left outside, unlike my previous love, Alpine, the Siberian Husky. She would look up at it (rain) and just look at me like “yeah, so what?” She’d shake herself off, and look at me again like, “what’s the big deal? Rain, what rain?”. Where Blue sat in a little pile getting drenched. I ran out and managed to carry him back inside where we had a prompt rubdown and blow-dry. I think he kind of liked it. 🙂
The heart breaker for me is the lack of interaction I can have with him. None of the areas he can be in (tile or hardwood floors vs. oriental rugs) are adjacent to where I am, which is my office. As a result, I get to hear him crying and whimpering which just kills me. But after a while of responding, I just try to ignore them and as a result, much like a baby, he falls asleep.
I went out today and got puppy training pads (tried diapers but due to his dragging lower half, he just slides out of them, even with a snug over-pantie) to put between him and the tile floor. Hopefully these will help him not be so stressed out when he looses control. Did I mention that I think he has a bladder the size of a blue whale (which btw can hold 5.5 pounds of urine)? Don’t know how he does it. The amount he holds is amazing or was, since now it’s just sort of a constant outflow.
And how can you ever deny water, food and treats to your companion? You simply can not. So, we come to the final stage and a decision. Having “walked” six other loves on their way, via their choice or mine, I’ve come to know when they need assistance. We are now at that door. And I do not like that door, but I must open it.