Category: dogs

More home-like week for Crash and I

by worrylessjourney, posted in balance, declutter, dogs, knitting and crocheting

Living where I am is beginning to feel more like home. Today I started on a project of unpacking 6 large plastic bins of yarn and sorting them into shoe box size containers according to yarn weight. When I have finished it will make finding yarn for projects so much easier. Just packed in huge bins made it impossible to have any idea what is there. That will be a big plus for me.

Austin and my Independent Living site are pretty much shut down. There is so much info that the new virus version is less troublesome but I don’t want it if I can manage to evade it. I suppose at some point all of us will have it but I’d rather not just now. My plate has been full enough for the last year and I am ready for some changes.

I hope that most of my word press friends have managed to either survive or not get covid. Hopefully in the near future the new Pfizer medicine will be available as a treatment.

My dog, Crash, is better from his bout with Kennel Cough. The only problem is getting so much medicine down him each day but that will end soon. My daughter still has Tillie and it is so much easier with one. They don’t seem to be distressed with being away from each other so I am thankful for that.

I hope this new year will bring positive changes for all of us and the whole world.

Hope is never gone

by worrylessjourney, posted in acceptance, dogs, faith, God, hope

I know my life has not provided pleasant reading for quite a while. Unfortunately it has not yet changed for the better. I was terribly sick Christmas Eve I think due to medicine changes but fine on Christmas. Have been basically fine since except for the pain from the fractured vertebrae.

 Now one of my dogs is ill and I am worried. I am praying for a good prognosis. A new year is coming and I still hope for better things to come. With trust in God and faith there will be continued hope.

Sad and anxious about my dogs

by worrylessjourney, posted in anxiety, dogs, sadness

Last week was a real roller coaster. My dogs bark and cry. They do this because they are anxious since I am the only stable thing in their lives. Crash has been somewhat anxious since we got him. With both of them being rescues they have a past that I don’t know about. Unfortunately, this has made them what they are. I understand because they have been through what I have been through.

Last Monday I was told that the dogs have to go as people have complained about their noisiness. I understand this as they have truly have been noisy. I have done some drugs with them with little success. Now I have to try something else. I am doing the only thing that I can as a last ditch effort to solve the problem. I don’t want to have to drug the dogs all day every day to calm them. At the same time something has to be done….so…tomorrow they will be going to a dog boot camp for two weeks.

This may or may not help. They are old dogs and may not be able to make big changes. They will be with very professional and caring people who will work hard to make a difference. If they don’t eat for three days they will come back. I don’t know how they will respond.

The dogs are not at long term risk as my daughter and her family will take them if they have to leave me. However, they are the last link to my former life and I will miss them terribly. I want them to be settled and not afraid. The next weeks will tell the tale.

Sad Bassets

by worrylessjourney, posted in aging, dogs, sadness

The weather has changed at last and the air is cool and crisp. The dogs and I both love to walk when it is like this. We took the longer walk. Old bassets don’t do long or fast walks but today they were up for more exercise.

Dealing with the dogs has been a challenge in the last week. Crash (male) had diarrhea and Tillie (female) a bladder infection. This is the first time since we have had them that either of them has had any real problems but as we get older things happen. They have both been to the vet and both are better.

Basset mom is better too now that they have more or less recovered.

Helping bassets to adjust

by worrylessjourney, posted in acceptance, dogs, empathy
Dogs calm for now

This is the first time I have written in a long time. I don’t know why. I just couldn’t think. I guess that all that has happened in the last year has caught up with me. I am in a strange place. Life, after all, is a strange space. Sometimes we just need to back up and take a breath.

The two basset hounds have not adjusted at all and it makes me feel so sad to leave them even for a little while. I am working with my vet to find a solution for this but just beginning. She has suggested training and I realize that part of what is being done is to get them to trust me. I know they do on some level but real training has never been done with them and they need to see me as someone who can assure them that is is fine for them to be left in the apartment.

This type of training will be long term and I don’t expect a result over night but I am hopeful. Crash is fairly amenable but Tillie is another matter since she failed training once before but I will hope.

I just want to make their lives bearable.

Moving again

by worrylessjourney, posted in anxiety, dogs, moving on

Here I go again. Tomorrow the packers come and on Friday the movers to pack the pod. It will then go into storage until I get a moving date for the new apartment. I am so tired of this but know this is the last move (God willing). It will be nice to have a place that is my own. I can’t wait. There is something about this last move that really rattled me but now that I have started any packing I have to do it is better.

So many people have been touched by covid and lives have been changed. Mine is just one of them. I would have had to do this anyway covid has just made it harder and lonelier. I will so enjoy getting to meet people and have things to do.

My only concern is my two bassets who are both very anxious. The male (Crash) is going to have to have some meds as he has always had severe anxiety. We don’t know what happened to him before we got him but it did damage him and losing my husband and all the change has exacerbated his problems. Hopefully the vet will help me get him more settled. He is such a sweet boy as is our female (Tillie).

Moving???

by worrylessjourney, posted in dogs, life changes, tired

This time with my daughter has been wonderful. It has been so nice to have someone with me. Being alone so much has been difficult.

I miss my life. I’ll bet most of us do. There have been so many changes. Change is fine but so many at once is overwhelming. Days of trying to adjust have left me exhausted. Now there is more change to come. Two moves almost back to back. Sometimes I wonder if it will ever end. The poor dogs have been dragged from one place to another. I know they are so confused. The female will not let me out of her sight. She is about 11 and I think she is almost deaf. I guess she can’t hear me moving around and has to have me in sight.

In our original home

I am so ready for this journey for this to be settled. It has been so stressful. The final move will take me a place where there are lots of things going on and people to do things with. However, I will have my own apartment and my own space to be in. The best of both worlds.

Comfort

by worrylessjourney, posted in calm, dogs, love
resting

This is Tillie. Tillie knows how to relax. She is trying to teach me the same thing. Look at her. Don’t you wish you could rest like that…not a worry in the world. But that is now. Tillie is a rescue. We don’t know what happened to her before but we do know how she is now. She has shaken the past away and now rests without fear. She is calm and is still trying to teach me that I can relax and the world will continue.

Who could love us more?

by worrylessjourney, posted in dogs, unconditional love, understanding

There was a tremendous thunder storm in the middles of the night and I was awakened by a panicked dog. Ever since we rescued him him has been terrified of thunder, firecrackers and fireworks. This is an 58 pound Basset Hound. I can’t pick him up and he was cowering by the side of my bed. I leaned over far enough to rub him with my hand and he began to be settle some. I kept my hand there until it fell asleep at which point I switched and stretched my log over the side of the bed and rubbed him with my foot. He settled and stayed there until the storm subsided and then left. I awoke with my leg numb and tingling but happy that I was able to comfort him.

He, Crash, and my other dog Tillie give so much love and meaning to my life that I couldn’t survive without them. They know my mood and do whatever they can when I am down. They are excited when I am joyful and Tillie follows me from room to room keeping me always in her sight/scent.

I hope I never have to be without a dog. All the ones who I lived with have enriched my life in so many ways. I plan to always have such a loving companion. Who else loves so much?