We're back on the road again; after being hit with a new wrench we are again a fine tuned machine. I'm talking about Jessie's dementia which certainly threw our day to day for a loop to say the least.
Two previous dementia blogs.
Dementia #1
Dementia #2
Our pack is a fabulous one; has been for nearly 11 years now. Sure we've had our ups and downs; trials and tribulations but generally we're in order. So when Jessie was hit with dementia sometime around December 2010, everything was a mess for a while. But I'm happy to say we are back on the road again.
I like when everything is running smoothly; but as life has a habit of doing, things can go from good to bad quickly. So over the last several months of learning and readjusting we are pretty much there. We've got a routine again; a loose routine of course as I'm not much of a routine person. Jessie seems to be very comfortable with everything day to day with everything falling into place.
She's a funny little thing and often has me smiling simply because of her gusto for life. She's 15.5 years old and for a small very fit and muscular girl is nothin; but her lack of vision, hearing and now dementia has just made things interesting. :) Her range of motion goes from nil to 100 miles an hour in a matter of seconds. She sleeps in her crate at night which is essential as her symptoms start around 2:00 am and I need my sleep. She paces and pushes to get out of her crate until we are up about 5:00am.
Once out she is like a torpedo and I'm not joking; I'm going to try to video her for you this weekend. She races around the backyard like a crazy person (okay she actually is a crazy dog). The goal is for her to pee and she knows it; once she goes she can come in. She charges into the kitchen, around the corner and up the stairs like she has been shot out of a cannon. The goal? The morning treat. Once she's had that she wanders around; goes out the dog door several times and then joins Tilley on her dog bed. That is where she is at the moment.
The speed starts once again if she is going for a walk; she hurls her little body everywhere at such a speed that I can barely get her harness onto her. She does these amazingly huge loud yawns when she is happy and/or excited so that goes on until we get to the park. There she again bursts out of the car and we are on our way. Somewhere in the middle of our walk she starts to slowdown until she is at a snail pace; often needing a lift the final steps to the car.
We have a bit more excitement during breakfast feeding time and then it is full blown shutdown. Sleep fills the rest of the day until it's feeding time again. It amazes me that she is up and alert around 6:00pm, no matter what I'm doing or where I am something in her body says food time. She hurls her little body around with sheer delight over dinner time and then its shutdown again.
We put her to bed and it starts all over again. I have a highly changing life day to day but she is pretty much set in this routine which is definitely a good thing for all. Working around it took a while but now we are all happily back on the road again.
I'm looking forward to your book, having gone through canine dementia with Mitzi, 14 at the time. She'd had cataract surgery almost 2 years before, having gone blind after rapid onset diabetes, and when she got her vision back she never slowed down. Until a vestibular disease event. The dementia became apparent after that.
ReplyDeleteI missed our feisty little girl but learned to love the changed, increasingly affectionate but confused---and always hungry---girl that she had become. In her younger days, I was convinced that she only looked like a miniature schnauzer, that she was in reality a "chow hound". She remained one until the end. Miss you Mitzi...
Hold Jessie close, cherish each day. She's still your Jessie, just at another stage of her life.