Okay, so, I haven’t been around much. To tell the truth, I just haven’t had the stomach for politics for a long time. (I can handle it in small doses, when filtered through The Daily Show.) But during those times that my life, to be blunt, sucks, I tend to actively avoid reading stories that could make feel worse.
But I knew there were some animal lovers around these parts, so I wanted to share this. Brady, who I have dubbed the Best Dog in the World, is pretty much falling apart before my eyes.
Okay, he’s over 13 years old, which I know is already pretty old for a larger dog. But this is still HARD. He’s been there for me through so much. And it’s not “time to make the hard decision” yet–have been through that before with other pets. He still enjoys life, though. Still raids the trash when the opportunity presents itself, still enjoys walks–at his own pace.
But he’s gotten pretty “labor intensive”. For the past several years, I have seen him gradually become more disabled–basically, his back end doesn’t work so well. Hard to get up. When he does stand, it can be hard for him to balance. And it’s hard for me to figure out if he actually needs to “go”–and I need to rush him outside–or if he’s just standing weird.
Since he is MY dog, and the rest of the family basically tolerates him, I do what I can to avoid any “accidents”. So, a lot of the time when I take him outside, he doesn’t actually need to go.
It’s been exhausting–more so in the past few weeks, when I was already recovering from a 5 day stay in the hospital. But I owe it to him–he’s been good to me.
Lately, the biggest challenge is getting him to eat enough. He wants to eat, but his back legs keep giving way from under him. New challenges to figure out…I usually can get him to eat. I just have to catch him when he’s ready.
Sorry if this was kind of long and rambling, but I’m sure there’s someone out there who’s been through this, and it would help if I could feel a little less alone in this.
