Rebooting With Chopstick

Simon was interested to know who some of the puppies I've lost were. And he really wanted pictures to see. But turns out 2009 wasn't exactly a digital photo era for me, so we lack a lot of photos of fosters. This made Simon very sad. 

So, he wanted to honor our current Chopstick. 

Choppy was rescued in 2017 and joined our family in May 2017. 

Chop loves to carry shoes in his mouth, dig holes, lick Simon, eat laying down, run and bark at cars, and go on walks. 

He doesn't like police sirens or thunderstorms. 

Aging, Younging, & Inbetweening

The shiftiness of senility daunts me.

One day he seems to with it. Even the vet who sees Kobe every 6 months or so can see he has it together. "He even knows to growl at me," he says. So I go home and try to keep everything normal.

Then I turn around and he's looking at me blankly while peeing on the floor.

Yeah, not so normal. So NOT normal.

Less normal that I came home toady and he was unable to get traction on the floor (concrete and hardwood) because his back legs were tremor ridden. I thought, "I'll carry him to the elevator, then down 8 flights, and then another several hundred feet to the grass to pee." Cause cleaning up is THAT HARD. Well, he's actually almost 1/3, my weight now...and that's officially harder. But it took my attempt to realize that.

Maybe weight training needs to speed up to stay in line with Kobe's needs. No more putting it off.

So, younging to keep up with the aging, and maintaining and navigating the inbetweening.

I can handle that.

To my new lofty neighbors,

Excuse me, ma'am. Yes you. The woman who walks her 3 large dogs on long retractable leashes only she can't retract them because she's juggling too many dogs...1 dog above the 2 pet limit for our building. Yes you. I see that you have some of those building provided disposable dog waste bags tied to one of your leash handles. Can you tell me why you never use them? As I walk by and see your dogs squatting and straining to poo, I try to make eye contact with you hoping to shame you into picking it up but you never look over. I've even considered asking if you'd like to use one of my bags. But I'm afraid to get too close, as your unruly dogs don't seem to mind very well. And since my dog is old, I'd rather he not be assaulted by your horde of animals.

Oh, and you sir. You, over there. Yeah, your dog is in my and my dog's business and you seem to have no regard for this being a community space and not your personal backyard. This is an open street. Cars drive on this street. You coming down here and unleashing your dog to have him run willy nilly is not only unsafe, but IT IS ILLEGAL. I know you want him to have freedom to roam. Perhaps you should look into visiting a fenced dog park or buying a backyard. But, for the time being, I will stick my foot in your dog's chest to keep him from trying to dominate my dog's face. Yes, I know this is natural dog behavior, but I have no intention to form a 'pack' with your unmanageable dog. Therefore I see no point in letting him hump and risk starting a fight. Since my own dog has alpha tendencies, I KEEP HIM ON A LEASH so I can control his actions. Perhaps you should consider this too. Oh wait, that might interfere with your ability to two-handed text on your phone and ignore your dog while you're down here. Oh well.

Oh, and you, other guy. Thanks for picking up your dog's poo in one of these clever bags. I really appreciate you doing so. Can I just ask one favor? Can you not just tie it off and throw it on the ground? Sure, I like being able to see from a distance that there is poo there, but, come on. I already have to contend with the landmines left from every other dog owner like 'lady with three dogs' and 'unleashed texting guy.' Surely, you don't think that the two trashcans on your way back to the building are only there for looks. They do function nicely as trashcans.

And you, nice guy who also lets his dog roam unleashed. When you tell me, "Oh, he's friendly," as your dog is bee-lining at full speed towards my elderly & crotchety (but most importantly LEASHED) dog, why don't you ever consider that maybe my dog isn't friendly? What would happen if this approach by your dog were considered a threat to either me or my dog and mine react to protect? Would you think that it's my fault? I'm just trying to be prepared for the inevitable.

And to most of the rest of my neighbors: you all seem perfectly nice. I'd really like to meet and talk to you as I am walking my dog and bagging his poo. But, I am so turned off by your inability to respect this common area, that I don't want to start talking and then get snarky when your dog squats and you fail to clean it up. It would be like if I were outside my old house in the weeks before we moved and my miserable next door neighbor were to come over and ask why we decided to move. "Because you are a miserable old lady." Yeah. AWKWARD. So, I just kept my head down to avoid having to talk to her. And I'll do the same with you, my new lofty neighbors, unless I see you scooping poo. Then I may wander over and have a little chat and pet your leashed dog.

Love,
Me

Who has a puppy? Everybody does!

So, Cliff and I decided to uproot ourselves and move. Long ago we decided that living where we were was not working for us. Although we loved the 5 1/2 years we spent in our home, the community surrounding us was...well...not a community at all. After careful consideration, we decided to move into a large downtown Dallas loft building, where we instantly felt like a part of the community. And Kobe, too, was welcomed. Our new building is so pet friendly, that most people know your pets name before yours even.

Kobe's stress level was evidently raised initially (as seen by Cliff's repeatedly stepping in things he wished he hadn't). But, he has folded quite well into the mix of crazy dogs, crazy smells, and some even crazier people. Where his senility was becoming more and more obvious, he now seems more with it. I know our vet is right that we need to keep his life pretty low-stress, but what we found was that changing things up the way we did forces him to exercise his brain more. He seems more and more like his old self every day. Well, if you can ignore how it takes him twice as long to get up and how his kidney failure requires he drains his water bowl twice a day.

So, a win for us and a win for him.

Since our building restricts us to 2 animals, and we've already met that limit (Kobe and Cliff...ok, Kobe and Kitty) we can't foster while we live here. But, we already resigned ourselves to not fostering for a while for Kobe...so that's not exactly new news.

So, a new blog name is in order...and I've ordered "Party Like a Puppy."

Yeah, I've got your Biscuit

I consider myself a pretty understanding person. Although I may jump to conclusions sometimes, I always leave a little bit of room for me to have presumed wrong and will readily admit when I've not given someone a fair shake. Additionally, I've tried to avoid profanity here, as I want everyone to feel comfortable reading this blog.

I will warn you now that both items in the prior paragraph are violated in this post.

My anger cup runneth over.

You. Hey you. Yeah, you- the asshole who pulled over on the side of the road and dumped your dog on the street. You drove off without any regard for her even though she's, presumably, given you many years of her love and devotion.

What did you think would happen to her as you dumped her and ran on that rainy night? She's old. Probably as old as Kobe with cloudy eyes and stiff back legs. Seriously? You take her many years of youth and then just cast her away like fucking trash when she needs a bit more from you in her old age- only a bit more understanding and patience maybe?

No excuse you have will make any difference to me. Don't have the money for her medical needs? Not actually your dog and you don't want to take care of her? She doesn't get along with the spouse/girlfriend/kid/mother-in-law? There are appropriate solutions that do NOT include dumping your poor, elderly dog on the street. If you had cared enough about her to inquire about options, you would have had many to choose from.

You don't deserve to know the kind of life she is going to have now that she's finally rid of you. I could wish for you to feel the pain of abandonment in your own old age that you subjected this poor dog to - but that would be heartless...and I'm not like you.

Good, Bad, Disappointing, & Good

First the good. Then the bad. And then the disappointing. Finally the good again.

The good! Kobe's latest test results do support the thought that his kidney failure is a slow progressing one. We will continue to keep an eye on his blood work and have it completed every 6 months just to be on the safe side. My vet even thinks that we are fortunate to have accidentally stumbled upon this, as the change in his food will help keep him healthier for longer. Most dogs get diagnosed later in the disease, when food doesn't have quite the impact as it is having on Kobe.

Now the bad. Over the past couple of months we have noticed some pretty significant changes in our boy. If a dog could win an award for housebroken-ness and predictability, the Kobe of 1998(ish)-2008 would win gold (yes, he predictably 'guards' me from all things dangerous- tin foil, flashing lights, car horns, kids, anything on wheels..the list goes on). Our poor guy seems more like a puppy now than ever- having accidents in the house, restless at night, anxious and under my feet all the time, and chewing on things he hasn't chewed on since he was a year old.

My vet informs me that these are all classic symptoms of senility. My baby boy is no longer a baby. Worse, he is slipping into the human equivalent of Alzheimer's. According to my research, by dogs aged up to 11, 1 in 3 dogs show symptoms. And dogs 11-16 (Kobe's age group) 2 in 3. At least Kobe's statistic is in the majority. I'm sure there has to be loads of information and support on the interwebs for me to comb through in the next days and weeks.

The disappointing news is that one of the best things you can do for Kobe's cognitive deterioration is to keep the house as stress-free and as predictible as possible. So, this puts a pretty significant hold on fostering.

The second good? There's a new shelter opening up only a block or so from my office. Since the puppies can't come to me- I will go to them. Hopefully I can volunteer at this new shelter (or another if need be) to help relieve the guilt I feel for not fostering. Hopefully I can impart some of my experience on a new shelter's volunteers...or at least still help the needy dogs in some way.

Maybe this blog will evolve into my experiences as a shelter volunteer...I guess I'll have to think of a new name.....

Notes from the Kobe Front

I know this blog is about fostering, but sometimes we learn our greatest lessons from our own companions during foster 'down time.'

The cat was a little tired of being chased, so we're taking a break from fostering to give him time to relax. Little did I know that we would desperately need this time to focus on our tireless teacher, Kobe.

During our first ever vet visit for allergies, Kobe was given the steroid prednisone to help keep him from itching. Although he's an incredibly healthy dog (at least physically ;)), Kobe started to react poorly to this medicine. Upon further testing we've come to know that our poor baby is in chronic kidney failure. Now, once I cried and got that over with, I realized that this is much more common than I thought, and Kobe still has the chance to live out his many senior years comfortably. After a few weeks on new food (what?!?! it's not organic?!?!) we will retest his levels to gauge exactly how progressed we think the disease is. Kobe is feeling a little better already, as my clean (sans dog pee) floors can attest to. He's just totally thrilled to be eating this new decadent canned food.

Having a senior dog is starting to show its challenges. The rewards, however, are countless.