Rescue Journal

the rescue perspective

Carol  ·  Feb. 7, 2011

mystic really is a very good little girl...even for a puppy. weekends are the best for her tho...she is so utterly exhausted by the end of the day that she is content to just sleep or quietly lay around chewing on her toys.

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a few people have asked how we can bear to care for a palliative puppy? and at some point i am sure it will be heartbreakingly hard...but right now? it is not hard at all because mystic feels healthy, happy and joyful.
there is no point at all in borrowing sadness by worrying too much about what is happening down the road....there are enough worries happening today to take on tomorrows too.

i am going to have to do something about maude pretty soon. i keep saying it but i can't seem to actually do it. the problem is that while her mind slips further and further away...her body at 18 is still absolutely amazingly healthy. and in her dementia she is not anxious or afraid but she is unsure most of the time now as to what she is supposed to be doing. she gets lost in the middle of the kitchen floor...was she going this way? that way?...she gets stuck cuz she can't remember anymore.

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but if my legs are close in her view...she remembers she is supposed to push her head right thru....if a can of food suddenly appears...she remembers to take her place in the front of the line up to get her treats too. let me pull out a handful of cookies and she knows to follow me to my chair cuz she will get more then anybody else. and she still knows that the best thing of all is her head in my hands or a trot round the pond.

maud

at what point do i say to her...maudie, i love you but it is time for you to let go and end your life here?

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i sometimes get frustrated by simple petty things...like where the hell is my kettle jenn at 6 am this morning??? microwave tea is just not the same. and i can get pissed at the crazy shit that people sometimes sling...when i know i shouldn't even bother if other people's crazy is not actually inflicting pain or suffering on the animals or humans around here.

my job is to worry about moving half grown chickens out into the grown up chickens world....my job is to worry about popeye's feet and how they feel for him today...i am to share in his trauma and feel badly about medicating ziggy, and worry about gideon and wilbur in the same vicinity as one bowl of food, i am to make sure that mystic has a life full of happiness crammed into a one single year, and i am to hold eddie and tell him he was a very good friend as he passes away....and i am to worry about paying the vet bills for all of them too.

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but right now at this moment my job has to be....to make myself make an unhappy decison of about my deeply loved maudie.....i just can't leave her standing in the kitchen feeling lost and unsure for the rest of her life.

everything else is just background noise...not important, not worth worrying about...the microwave will make decent tea til i get my kettle back where it belongs...and the crazy shit will occasionally come and go like it always does cuz nothing attracts crazy more than warm and fuzzy animals.

i love you jenn but i spent 10 minutes looking for my missing kettle before i remembered your kindness in bringing all of the wet and cold weekend warriors, hot coffee, hot tea and a whole whack of really tasty cinnamony things!

Comments

Carol

it is the same and that is a very good question that i don't know the answer to.

erin

is dementia in dogs similar to alzheimers in people? im just wondering if maude is as upset about being as lost as we are upset at seeing her be lost.

Jane Stanley

"there is no point at all in borrowing sadness by worrying too much about what is happening down the road.there are enough worries happening today to take on tomorrows too."
This bears repeating.
This is also why I follow your blog every day.
Thanks to all of you there.

Ashley

I'll bring it out on Sunday if that gives you enough time... If not I can store it until you do :)

Carol Ann

MO--- dionne brought that can opener and it broke so she bought a much better one and brought it today (monday)

Carol

thx ashley and dad!!! it can go into the shop til we are ready to use it...i have to find a home for the 5th wheel first!

Ashley

Carol, I have 100 ft of wire for you! I don't know when you want to use it but my dad got it today... no charge! Woo hoo! Is there somewhere I can put it this week until you need it? I also forgot that j/d food in my car yesterday!

Mo

I'm with you Carol Ann in regards to Mystic & Ziggy beating the odds, if it can happen at all...there isn't a better place to make it happen.

Lol... and you guys are forgetting that I have Al's gal , Gwen . I hope he loves me cuz I truly love him...but when those 2 get together in the lower field and start feeling frisky ( in the nice clean play way ) that is LOVE.

Now that I have a larger vehicle... Hmmm perhaps Al....

jenn hine

OMG poor Al that is just the saddest thing I have ever heard! He must have been extra happy to see you Sunday eh mo!

Carol Ann

Mystic is a joyful creature and every day is a special day for her and with her. I like to think she will beat the odds and live longer than expected just like Ziggy and of course all the rest of the older ones. I don't want Maude to go either. :( and poor al is in love with mo and she didn't show up sat.

Nicole N

Mo... Al is not at all happy about you not coming on Saturdays. He layed in the big field by the shelter where the sheep hang out... just staring at where you would normally park... waiting... waiting... waiting. He even missed the morning walk... waiting... waiting... wiating. Poor Alister.

Jenn

i did not take that kettle out to the building mother, the kettle was already out there! the only things I took out I brougth back too (sugar and milk!!!)

suzanne

Hi Carol,
We all know that I don''t know you personally since I live in BumbleF***, TN, USA. I know you only from what you write. Based on what you write, you are a whole hell of a lot stronger than I am, and I am really pretty strong. Please remember, when the sh*t starts to fly (does that "volunteer" give her own pets expired food? if so, she shouldn't have any pets)... there is an old Native American legend which goes like this... when any human dies and presents him/herself to the Great Spirit for entrance into their equivalent of Heaven, all the ANIMALS are assembled at the gates thereto and get to vote on whether or not that person is worthy of entrance based on how they treated the animals while they were on this earth. Know in your heart that the animals will, indeed, find you to be most worthy and try to focus on that when someone/something starts messing with your head. It's your heart that matters, and yours is obviously huge.

Mo

There you have it.. 2 souls on what is supposed to be opposite ends of the life spectrum, a juvenile just beginning her journey & an elderly who has travelled 18 years to arrive where she is .. yet both sit perilously close to the door that opens onto the path that takes them to the rainbow bridge... it doesnt matter how long they are here with us, what matters is that those they come in contact with actually see them for who they are, love them for who they are and carry them in their hearts & memories after they have gone.

How could we not take Mystic, SAINTS is a perfect spot for her to live & totally enjoy what time she does have. She gets to bomb around fields & barns with a whack of other dogs, everywhere she goes she makes people smile & laugh & reach out to pet & love her .. if only every dog, healthy or not, could start & finish their life in circumstance such as this..what a world that would be. Not sure what the recent stats are seems to me last I had heard the average dog has 5 homes in its lifetime...now that is a tradgey


Does anyone know where the can opener for the barn feed room went? I spent 5 minutes searching for it yesterday !!!