Right now — and this is subject to change at any moment — I feel like I have been given a gift. I have been told by a hospice vet that it’s time to say good-bye to Frankie, but not that there is a sense of absolute urgency. Frankie may be confused but he is…
Letting Go: Things That Go Bump In The Night — And the Day
One of my bookshelves collapsed the other day and the handyman said that, in order to fix it, I would have to remove all the books, not just those that had already fallen down. So I started piling them up on the floor of my guest bedroom, which usually doesn’t have piles of books on…
Five Things I Want To Tell You, While I Can Without Sobbing, About My Dog’s Departure
I know it’s just a question of time before I will have to part ways with my sweet Frankie. I can’t predict how long we have — I hope months, but it’s hard to say. I can safely predict that there will be a period afterwards when I won’t be able to think straight. So…
The Frankie Diaries, 9/26: Petside Manner & Hospice Care
I’m just back from the vet, where I went after a weekend panic. On Friday night, Frankie did a weird thing with his back legs when he was outside, kind of kicking them out like many dogs (but not generally Frankie) do after they poop or pee to stir up dirt. But Frankie didn’t seem…
The Frankie Diaries, 9/22: How Do You Assess a Dog’s Mental Quality of Life?
I’m just back from the gym, where I ran into Joan,* my one-time dog-walking friend. I haven’t seen her in at least a year, but I’ve been thinking about her a lot lately, and not because I miss our walks. I really like Joan, but got the sense she viewed our outings as exercise opportunities…
The Frankie Diaries, 9/18: The Physics of Dog Pee
I am just in from the backyard, where I took the second of the three pictures that accompany this post. I don’t usually take my camera along on these occasions, but I do spend a lot of time these days watching Frankie pee. That’s in addition to collecting his urine, which I test for blood…
National Suicide Prevention Week: The Burden of Being Irreplaceable (Yes, Even to Your Pet)
I’ve been in a dark place lately. For the past week and a half, I’ve been avoiding both my blogs. On Freud’s Butcher, where I discuss my mother’s family history in Vienna, all roads seem to lead to the Holocaust. Here, I usually end up at Canine Cognitive Dysfunction junction. So it was a bit…
The Frankie Diaries, 9/2: How I Learned Frankie had Doggie Alzheimer’s
I’m just back from the dentist’s office, where I had the usual one-sided conversation with Chris, the tech who cleans my teeth. It’s hard to be articulate with a sharp object probing your wide-open mouth, so my part of the dialogue pretty much consists of “unnh, unnh,” while Chris talks about her husband’s job and…
Portuguese Water Dogs & Pit Bulls: The Politics of the President’s Pets
Anything that President Obama does is news, which goes with the Leader of the Free World territory. And when the President does something warm and fuzzy, like getting a pet for his family — as opposed, say, to making recess appointments of agency heads — more sections of the blogosphere than just the usual political…
The Frankie Diaries, 8/23: The Three Faces of Frankie
4:15pm I come home from Trader Joe’s to find a message on my phone from my vet’s office. My heart stops for a moment, even after I realize that, since I haven’t brought Frankie in for any tests and he is sitting right in front of me, it can’t be dire news about his health.…