Sunday, November 30, 2003

My dog is about 14-15 years old. When I adopted her I was was told she was probably three years old. Recently, I noticed that her vaccination records listed her birthdate at 1/1/89 - which means her 15th birthday (approximated) approaches. And I see signs lately that she is nearing the end of her days.

This weekend she was clearly in some pain. She was moving slow, didn’t want to climb up the steps or jump on/off the bed or sofa. I’ve had to carry her up the stairs each time I’ve taken her out to walk. Not a big deal except that she’s 35 pounds and I live on the third floor. So I cut up some aspirin tablets for her and that seemed to help.

She didn’t eat anything but a few milkbones yesterday. But this morning she ate with gusto. And she was moving better down the stairs, although I still had to pick her up on the return trip to the apartment. I know she’s hurting when she lets me pick her up - she hates that.

So I thought she was improving...until I arrived home from church and lunch with the family to discover that she had vomited (in three places, including on the bed) in my absence. *sigh* Fortunately, today is laundry day - the bed linens are in the wash as I type this - and the carpet has been cleaned.

LATER: I forgot to mention the problems I’ve been having with the toilet in my bathroom this weekend too. The chain that links the flusher handle and the rubber disk thing that lifts to release water popped off the rubber disk on Friday night. I fought with it for about 30 minutes and finally got it back on, ending up with yucky block goo (mildew?) on my hands and under my fingernails. Kinda gross, but I was pleased that I was able to fix that myself.

So after cleaning up the vomit, I used the facilities and when I pushed the flusher handle I heard that telltale clink that told me the chain had popped off again. This time the loop that the chain attaches to on the rubber disk also came off. So with needle-nose pliers in hand, I battled again. And I won (so far). If it happens a third time, the rental office will get a phone call.

LATERER: I discovered that she puked twice in the living room while I’ve been in the bedroom blogging. She’s perkier than ever and after walking her again (she walked up the stairs! slowly, but she did it...yay!) she seems to be fine. Maybe she had a stomach bug. I’ll be watching her though.