msstabby

One of my dogs, Taffy (19-year-old Corgi/Dachsund mix), is, like I wrote, 19. That's really old for a canine. She's about as healthy as a 19 year-old can be. She's well enough to go for 1 mile walks every other day when it's warm; not too cool, not too hot. She's pretty much blind, but can find her way around the house well enough, with bumps into the furniture only if I forget to push the dining room chair in. She's mostly deaf, but also has selective hearing, meaning she'll ignore me but will come trotting into the kitchen when the refrigerator door opens. She's still perfectly capable in her mooching skills. She sleeps about 20 hours a day and does the night-wandering/pacing thing. And she has her good days and her bad days. Looks like today is a bad day. She's not walking well, and just stands in the middle of the room spacing out. Every morning I wake expecting to find that she died in her sleep. But not yet; she likes her life and is not ready to go. She has a great soft spacious bed, cuddles, her sisters and her brother, and me. I will be very sad when she does decide to leave this skin, but I think about her life with me which is pretty good.

I rescued her when she was about 5. Well, rescued...stole...same thing. She was tied outside in all weather (drought, snow and everything in between) with no human contact at all. She was beaten, totally unsocialized. Her owners were total shitbags. They were my ex-parents.

So one day I took her, and all my stuff (except my 1984 Bianchi Special. Steel, fire engine red with bright yellow bar tape. That bike saved my life. But it didn't fit in my little Honda hatchback with all my other stuff.), and never went back. We had a very long socialization process. She wouldn't let me pet or hold her, so giving her her first bath was a challenge. She was filthy. Much of the credit for bringing her into the world of the socialized must go to my old dog, Emma, who died 2 years ago New Years Eve day. Emma loved her from the start and showed her about life; that the universe does not have to be a threatening and adversarial place. We learned all the same lessons.

I have a pic of the 3 of us that I should scan.

She was not walking well last night, and was whining some. I soaked an aspirin in milk and gave that to her, both last night before bed and again this morning. She's seems to be feeling much better, and has just made her way into the sun and grass of the backyard, tail wagging, making some yaps to announce her presence. Maybe she pulled something on her walk Saturday night. It's hard to tell these days. Loks like her walks are now down to .5 miles.

OH! I just remembered...I was looking away when she wandered off her straight path and tumbled off a curb. She landed on her right shoulder. Damn, I bet that's it. Gotta love aspirin.

And yes, I know that it's not good to give regularly, stomach issues and whatnot. But hey, she's 19, and it makes her feel a lot better.