Rose is getting old

The life cycle of a dog is short. Seven years to each of ours the tale goes. By that count Rose is 82. She still brings the ball to me and does a double take at the frisbee, but the old zing is not there. Those thoughts only last a few seconds.

Six months ago she began to do, for her, weird stuff. She would not walk on ice, wood floors, or stairs, and tile surfaces were not much better. She would lose her footing easily on these surfaces and just not do it. So for the past few months she does not come into our kitchen with its laminate floor. She has to come in and out of the garage and does so only because there is a little area rug that she can walk on and she has no other choice.

She has had several urinary accidents starting on our trip. She got confused, we thought, because we were in and out of camp sites, and people's houses and her routine was busted. She prefers to use grass, but when a campground had hard dirt, it threw her off; where there were rocks or only sand, she became off balance.

I joked as we were preparing for the trip that I had better put a long handled shovel in the back of the camper just in case we had to burry her while enroute. Now I am wondering if I have only missed my tongue in cheek projection by a few months.

We took her to the Vet when we returned because of the "personal problem" and they did a head to toe analysis and found only a slight...bladder infection. She got ten days of anti-biotic for that...she is doing better in that department...waits all night and walks clear out to the road before she lets her water go. But during the day she rarely makes it that far. Ten yards down the drive she begins to dribble. Oh boy. Beyond that the doc said...dogs begin to lose it in mysterious ways. They forget who they are and who you are and that they were house broken and things of that nature.

We have also noticed that she loses her balance...especially after first standing up. But this has continued to some odd times and places where she staggers and catches herself slipping. I have done that for 15 years, but when your old pal does it you really wonder.

I think her problem is in her head...literally. She probably has athrosclerosis and is not getting enough blood to her brain. She eats well, she sleeps lots, but she is failing...for sure. Not fast yet, but she is not the same as she was just a year ago when she was only 77.

She walks a mile with us every day and she seems to enjoy that, but it does her in. She has been a good dog. She loves Truman, in fact she loves everybody that she has come to know. She does her circle dance when she reaquaints with people she has interacted with.

So we will see what this spring and summer brings...stays here and there...while we travel...one never knows what might happen when an old pal gets to that fragile age...and she is our pal.