Ellen's Blog: Wednesdaily with hot chocolate and tears.

[ellenmillion]

Poor Guppy did not appreciate being left at preschool this morning and chased me to the door in tears. The teacher is awesome about lifting her up and letting her wave through the window and getting her calmed down. I'm expecting a leveling up event of some sort, but it could also be that she went to sleep a little late last night.

I'm drowning my feelings of guilt in a whipped cream hot cocoa from the fabulous sipping streams and getting ready to write a little.

Went for a walk last night on the crunch snow with Guppy and Norway. My poor old man dog, he is not doing so well. He broke through the snow crust at one point and had to scrabble really hard to get out as I was coming to get him. He ended up dragging his back half for several hundred feet before his back legs started working again, and then limped and staggered the rest of the way home. He still wants to get up and go - so many interesting smells and things to go see! - but his body is just starting not to work so well. He's 13 now, and for a 90 lb dog, that works out to about 90 years old. He bunny-hops pretty frequently now (something old dogs do because their back legs won't comfortably support their weight individually anymore) and if things are slippery, his back legs have a tendency to go out from under him altogether. We've got extra rugs down in the house for him, since we've got slick laminate flooring, and he gets pain pills when he seems to need them. He's still eager to go out, but we have to be extra careful with him. He wants to run, but he shouldn't.

It's tough getting old.

Writing now, and some art things.

Hug your pets.

Comments

[mizkit]

aw, man. poor old dog. poor ellen. poor guppy. <3

[sholio]

Poor old dog (and mom, and guppy!). Lucky is also 13, but he's a smaller dog (60 lbs or so), so it's not quite as hard on him. But even for that, I'm actually really surprised how well he's holding up. It was only last summer that I started to notice him slowing down at all. He is starting to have noticeable hip problems now -- we've got him on pain meds, which helps him walk better, but he'll still occasionally have his back legs go out from under him if he makes a sudden turn or trips on something.

It's hard watching them get old. :(

[kelkyag]

<remembers childhood pets>
<pets all the neighborhood dogs>

<sends virtual hugs for Norway and Guppy>