Age Has It's Privileges

When Morgan was a puppy, she was a terror. She ate shoes and furniture and anything she found lying around. But she was so darn cute!

I had a little help with her. Monty was not only her best friend, but he was a first class tattle tale and would come tell me whenever Morgan got into something. He was a big help in raising her.

Then the years flew by and now Miss Morgan has passed the 15 1/2 mark. She doesn't get into much trouble anymore, though we do keep the bathroom doors shut because she still has a fondness for shredding toilet paper.  Now she spends her days more quietly than she used to, but don't think she's not still a force.

Let me tell you about her days. We all get up about 6AM and everyone goes outside to pee. Then everyone goes back to bed for an hour or if I'm lucky for two hours. Morgan gets her Denamarin pill when we go back to bed. It's for her liver disease and has to be taken an hour before she eats. At six, she's usually pretty groggy and Rob has to help her out the front door and down the steps. She's happy to go back to bed for awhile.

 When we all get up again between 7 and 8, Morgan is more awake and ready to get the day started. Rob feeds her and Mackey together but Morgan has decided that she doesn't like to eat in the morning and usually just looks at her bowl and walks away. Instead she chooses to do her exercises which consist of lying on her back, kicking her legs in the air for about five minutes. She usually does them in the middle of the living room but sometimes she does them in the tunnel.

When I come upstairs from feeding the other dogs, I hand out medications. Morgan gets her thyroid table, a B vitamin, a tumeric capsule, 2 glucosamine tablets and 5 fish oil capsules. Then she gets a squirt of her arthritis medicine, Metacam. After all are swallowed, she gets a cookie and a piece of strawberry. Then she naps close to the table while we have breakfast. After breakfast she and I go outside by ourselves and wander around the yard a little, then it's time for a nice long nap.

Morgan goes outside several times during the day, sometimes at her request and sometimes because I think she should go. She doesn't go to the back yard anymore because the hill is too steep for her. She and I go to the mailbox and back, then she walks to the back of the deck so she can watch the other dogs run below in the yard. When we come in I hand feed her about a cup of kibble.

Around 3:30 Rob feeds the two girls their dinner and by this time Morgan is ready to eat dinner. After they eat Rob takes them outside but Morgan stays on the deck and walks laps. Our deck wraps around three sides of the house, so she gets a pretty good walk in by doing between four and six laps. Next it's time for another nap.

Between 6:30 and 7 Rob takes the others to the back yard for an after dinner run. It's often cooler and they can run and bark and play. I take Morgan into the front yard and when she's ready we go back to the deck for a couple more laps, then it's inside where she eats some more kibble from my hand.

The evenings are pretty quiet as we watch TV and I knit and Rob is on his laptop. But at 9, Morgan wakes up and comes toward me. I know exactly what's on her mind, but if I don't react quickly enough she starts barking at me and won't stop. I get a bowl of kibble from the kitchen and we sit together in the living room as I feed it to her. But she's not finished, when the kibble is gone she wants her milkshake. I pour about half a bottle of Ensure in a mug and hold it while she laps it up.

Then it's a short outing and Morgan is ready for bed. As soon as we're all ready I help her up the stairs to the bedroom, turn on her nitelight and give her two cookies. But Morgan can count and she knows that Rob also has two cookies, so she waits till he hands them over. Then she arranges her blanket and stuffed bear and settles down for the night. She drifts off, no doubt dreaming of cookies and milkshakes and sleeps thru till we wake her the next morning to start all over again.

Since starting Adequan injections about a month ago, her appetite has improved and she's getting more exercise. Her nightmares have also decreased, she's only had one. I wish she could tell me, but I'm guessing that the pain from her arthritis is a bit less, so she's feeling better and showing it. Whatever it is, we're enjoying Miss Morgan's routines and demands, though the other dogs think they'd like to get milkshakes at bedtime, too.

 I'm not kidding myself, Morgan is old. She has liver disease and very bad arthritis. Her legs are weak and shaky and we have to help her on stairs. Sometimes her right back leg gives out and we have to help her walk. But, even with all those strikes against her, she seems to be having a very good quality of life in her later years. She is alert enough to know what she wants and when she wants it and we're here to serve.