Lately, I have been having a rough time watching as my little man, Lil'Shit moves towards his final days. It is much harder on me I think than him.
This is him doing his favorite thing, sun worship. This was several months ago.
He has a harder time getting around these days. Mostly suns himself or sleeps. I think may also have senility, quite often he appears to forget where he is or where he was going, and will stand somewhere and stare blankly, then lay down where he is and go to sleep.
And because he doesn't see very well or understand where he may or may not be in a room or which kennel he wants to go into, it is difficult when it involves Poppy, one of the other little dogs I have. She is getting increasingly cranky and snappy in her older years. And snaps and snarls at everyone she perceives to be too close to her or her space. Over a week ago I was awoken at 4am by her sounding like she'd gotten into it with another dog. Well she had, she'd turned her temper on Lil'Shit and bit up his ear. Biscuit, the pekinese, broke it up. But I had blood to clean up and an ear to doctor. A couple days later she did it again, this time removing the tip of that same ear. :( She's not a very bright dog, and is extremely stubborn, one of those who refuses to learn. So it's been back to locking her up at night in her kennel. It's much quieter that way, and she leaves the old man alone. Even though she is one of those who will mess in her sleeping space. I am having to wash the bedding for her every couple of days. Ick.
Moving along.......
Now, this is Corney, my brother's Border Collie.
He's a very active dog. Actually he tries very hard to be a good dog. And most times he succeeds. He just has a barking problem that drives us all nuts and kinda pisses off the neighbors. We've been trying an anti-bark device lately that emits a high frequency noise that only they can hear in response to barking. Actually it's working quite well, unless he is so distracted about what he feels he absolutely must bark at. Then I have to step in and say no to him. The little dogs are slower to respond to the device than he has been. And it's working on the neighbor dogs who instigate a lot of the barking fests. This is a good thing.
Now to the interesting part. After our super last night, I was still sitting at the table, and Lil'Shit was sleeping in the middle of the floor. Very much asleep. Corney came over at one point, and nudged him, and started worrying about his injured ear, washing it very thoroughly. He even washed the other ear and his face. It was so sweet to watch, I got all teary eyed. Then when he felt it was clean to his satisfaction, he nudged him gently to assure himself he was still there as it were. Then he wimpered a little and lay down with his nose inches from the old man, and watched him. At one point he may have thought he wasn't breathing or such, and stood up and nudged him again to see that he moved. The old man got up and moved over to Corney's big dog bed. Corney watched, then wandered off briefly, only to come back and watch him again. Eventually he washed his ear again. Guess it wasn't clean enough for him. He pretty much watched him the remainder of the evening. I had to wonder if it is getting close to time for passing and Corney is just watching out for him and caring for him.
However, things for the moment were back to normal this morning. I think when things are quiet and he's not distracted, he tries to watch out for the old man.
I will be very sad when the time comes. I have loved that little guy very much over the years. He's been a very good companion and friend. But I know it's not all that long now, things simply aren't working as well anymore, and he's definitely slowing down.
0 comments:
Post a Comment