28/12/2021
🎉🎂Cassie Turns 18 Today! 🎂🎉
My baby girl is elderly. The bouncy get-into-everything puppy has grown into a still-spry senior who craves woods walks even though she goes at a slower pace. Her eyesight is nearly gone and she can only hear loud noises. She's led around by her super sense of smell.
I know it's unusual for dogs to live this long so I've been treating her like it's her last year, spoiling her whenever I can. Her birth father lived to nearly 17 and her birth mom to age 14 so she's done well. Cassie's been on a no-grain diet most of her life and now she eats salmon for breakfast and roast beef for dinner with turkey sausage for lunch. Treats are bountiful, and chicken jerky is her favorite. I'm giving her pills and warm baths for her arthritis after which I spray her with her personal, no-chemical perfume created by my sister, Midge. She's still up for a game of keep away even though she runs into the furniture.
I've put out a fan so she knows by its breeze that she's near her bed. I give her massages, and she slumbers, slightly moving her limbs. I know she's dreaming about racing through the woods.
Sometimes, she gets fraught and fussy. She paces. She'll wake in the middle of the night unable to see or hear. She lets out an existential howl that beseeches, "Where am I and why am I alooone?” It's heart-wrenching. If it takes me a few moments to get to her, she bats me with her head to show her displeasure. My diva remains. After a few pets and sweet murmurings, she's reassured and leans into me ready to settle back down.
She went on an anti-depressant for a while, but after a month or so she refused to take it anymore. She wants love and attention, not drugs.
Cassie always seems to be teaching me something. And today, nearly two decades after she joined our family, I am reminded that love and attention is powerful medicine for the ills of those you love--no matter their age or ability to express themselves.
Sending you a hug from me and a lick from Cassie. And best wishes for your health and prosperity in 2022. ❤
