The Hard Phase - by the Lady

Living with 2 senior dogs has reminded me that we aren't good at talking about the challenges of the golden years (of people or dogs if we are honest). We talk about some about the grief when a beloved pet goes to the rainbow bridge, we talk about the challenges of having a puppy but we don't talk talk a lot about living with senior dogs.

While I don't want to dwell on the negative (and to be frank we still have a lot of golden in our days), this phase, especially with our girl, is hard. There are parts of it I hate and I do want to reflect on these, because I wonder if the silence and the difficulty of it all is one of the reasons senior dogs are "dumped" so often. 

Here is a sample night from last week. At 11:30 pm, our girl had an upset stomach on the bedroom floor. I took her out, while Man cleaned. Then I washed the floor. The same thing happened around 2 and around 6. Each time, she made it to about the bedroom door, so it would have been impossible for me to get her outside in time. Some nights, she doesn't make it off her bed. Those thankfully are easier to clean up as we have her sleep on a towel. Almost every day or night we have some sort of accident to clean up. 

I still surprise my people by doing things like this

The Man and I spend a lot of time trying to figure out what may have upset her stomach, what the patterns are etc. etc.. She is on a probiotic to help. We are trying to be very mindful of what she eats, however, there is the balance between giving her a great chapter, and the inconvenience of being up in the night, dealing with accidents. We do both work full time and sleep can be important. 

The other loss for me, and the thing that is driving me to want another dog, is the walk. We don't walk far these days. Now that it is cold and the snow is deep, the walks are even shorter.  Some mornings at say 5 am, in the dark, I am less sad about this, but as I write this and look at the beautiful snow and plan to snowshoe later today, I am sad I will do this alone as neither can physically do the deep snow. 

The cost of their medical care is also high. We chose to give them Librela (as it is very helpful for them) and we are extremely fortunate to be in the position to do so. I feel for people who can't support their pets in this way. However, it is a cost. 

While this chapter is hard, I know in my heart I will do it again and have no regrets with the choices I have made that have led me to this moment.  We still have love and adventure and some of the lost habits (counter-surfing, decrease in anxiety) are welcome. Life most of life, it is beautiful and ugly at the same time. 

Thanks for listening friends.

The Lady