There's Life in the Old Dog Yet

Ray brings us up to date with the health of his dog

THERE'S LIFE IN THE OLD DOG YET

As you may remember in the last issue we thought we were about to lose our old dog. Well he's still with us, so far.

It was quite a traumatic time, a bit of a roller coaster ride emotionally. As you may remember he was quite spaced out on valium for a few days and co-ordination was almost non-existent. He would take a few hesitant steps, and then the back end would forget what it was there for and collapse, quickly followed by the front end. He would then look round with a very bemused expression that said, 'How did I get here then?'

At first we had to assist him back to his feet again and he would take a few more erratic steps before collapsing again. Going to the loo needed quick reactions, we took him out on the lead so we could guide him in the right direction, but we sometimes had to grab his tail or back end if he started to collapse. We were reasonably lucky and only had to clean him up once, thank goodness! It was a time when we could have done with the sort of harness reins we used to have on our children when they were just starting to walk, so you could keep them under control and if they stumbled you could support them, breaking their fall before they hurt themselves.

As the days went by we started to see an improvement in his mobility and awareness of his surroundings and what was going on. We knew he was getting back to normal when he growled at my wife for some reason. Now he runs around like he used to, maybe not as fast as before but we're happy with that and I'm sure he is.

It was amazing to see the recovery; I suppose it's the animal instinct for survival. In only a couple of weeks or so, he went from being just about a lost cause to almost the dog he was before the fits. He still likes to play, and barks louder than he did before. Perhaps he's slightly deaf, and has to bark louder to hear himself, although he can still hear his food dish rattle at forty paces.

It's good to see life in the old dog yet.

RG

Ray Garrett