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Brian and I live in different states now, but our friendship is solid and our communication is steady. While we just lived near each other for two years in Tupper Lake, our friendship was forged at a pivotal time in our lives. Also, our dogs were a key aspect of the close bond.
Just months before Ranger died, Brian sent me an email to see how Ranger was getting along. Here is my emailed response:
"Ranger is hanging in. Seems to be coughing alot lately (maybe fluid in lung?). He can't tell when he has to poop anymore, so it usually just comes out (sometimes even when he's lying down). He's still participating with the family for the most part and is constantly laying near me or Tara. He's still doing the steps, but very slowly and sometimes stumbles. His balance is wobbly at best. He can't hear (maybe a little if something is real loud), so communicating with him is much different now. I have to tap him to get his attention if he is not looking my way and I tap one side or the other to steer him out of the way. Correction and obedience are almost out the window at this point...I never realized how verbal all that was until he could no longer hear anything. He has expanded his boundary in the back yard to include the neighbor's yard. He will occassionally take food off the coffee table if we are not guarding it (one Christmas cookie, one slice pizza, and one sandwich so far). Besides the lack of hearing, we just don't have much of a heart for punitive measures at this point. He's kind of like the real old grandparent that pretty much says and does whatever they want with little or no recourse. Everyone in the family knows the old grandparent was never like that before, and they just blame the age for everything and usually laugh about it. We're there with him. He's still a good dog, though."
I thought readers of WOODS DOG would find this tid-bit of information interesting. I just discovered the message the other day when I was purging my "sent" email file. |
