My long-coated chihuahua, Maggie, turns 15 years old tomorrow. She's healthy, vibrant and still leaps into the air around my legs as I stand at the kitchen counter preparing her (and our other two dogs') breakfast and dinner. But her age is evident in so many other ways, and I'm finding that for the first time in being a dog mom to several really old pets in the past I'm totally understanding what she's going through and I'm totally fascinated that I totally understand her!
We've been calling Maggie "Feng Shui Maggie" for the last year or so when we switched to a mobile groomer who is of Asian descent. Maggie's hair is comparable to a Papillion's and is hysterically mussed up when she awakens from a nap or from a good night's sleep. Our new groomer didn't find it as cute as we did, and said "She needs balance. She's out of balance." So he clipped her hair in what can only be described as The Feng Shui Way. Here's a picture of her taken earlier in 2012 - before she started being feng shuied - right after she woke up from a nap:
And here's Feng Shui Maggie as she looks today:
Ain't no doubt - she IS perfectly balanced now, although not nearly as hysterically cute as she was before. But as I look at her, and continue to book future appointments with the same groomer, I'm reminded that not everything that is in harmony and balance needs to necessarily be hysterically cute. Rather, it's much more important to be endearing and enduring and life-affirming than just plain old cute.
Maggie is probably 90% blind, and her hearing is greatly diminished. She most likely only sees light and shadows and hears only loud noises, with everything else a muffled drone. She has cataracts, and I do, too. Although my vision isn't as impaired as hers, I have problems with seeing at night, double vision and general, all around blending of objects. I might have to stare at something for several seconds in order to delineate its boundaries and then comprehend what that object actually is - Maggie no longer tries to understand what the object is but instead relies on me (and to a lesser extent, Jeff) to keep her protected from the object.
Our backyard has a large area between the storage shed and the fence to a neighbor's yard; the fence is virtually non-existent in that area because the neighbor's tree grew so large that it overlapped the boundary line. Previous homeowners have piled gardening debris (unused pots, etc. - we recycle ours!) to form a sort of barrier between the yards. It wasn't enough to keep our three dogs from straying from our yard, so we plugged up part of the area with an unused white child's gate. It's weatherproof, durable and although aesthetically kind of tacky, okay, it's really tacky, it does the trick. Several nights ago Maggie went outside, did her business and instead of walking back toward where I was standing by the deck waiting to carry her inside (she's no longer willing to climb stairs), she went running right to the child gate. Huh? Then I realized it's short, wide and white (a LOT like me - ha!) and was patiently standing there waiting for her to finish (again - a LOT like me!). In the past I would have thought she was suffering from doggie dementia or Alzheimer's, but now that I, too, have vision problems, I understood her confusion. Here's a picture of the tree, shed and gate from where Maggie had "finished her business":
On many occasions after Maggie has finished (obviously she likes to use the back of the yard as her personal bathroom space) she has headed straight to the now fallow, and still filled with last year's herbal debris, herb garden. So, I started to look at the garden from her view; again, I totally understood: one of the herbs that needs to be cleaned out before Spring is a clump of echinacea - it's tall for a plant but still short enough to be me, and it's wide and light-colored (like me!). Here's the fallow herb garden as it looks right now from her view:
She won't climb steps anymore because she misjudges the depth and height of each step, and that probably causes her to suffer a little bit of vertigo. I have vertigo, as well, and steps are a huge problem for me, except more from a total height situation: it makes me panic-stricken and dizzy and wobbly to be up high. As long as steps or a staircase is enclosed, I'm good to go, but if it's an open stairway, fuggetaboutit, I just can't do it. Again, I totally understand why she's frightened of the stairs. And snow and ice? She's afraid she'll slip and fall - I am too when I walk outside during winter; I take baby steps, testing each area in which I walk in order to prevent my falling. If Maggie slips, chances are that she won't be hurt, but she will become disoriented. I have osteoporosis, so if I fall, chances are that I'll have a serious injury. But I get her reluctance and hesitation and worry and fear.
I'm thankful and grateful that after half a century (including my childhood) of pet ownership that I have precious Maggie with whom to age alongside. It's been fascinating, eye-opening, heartwarming, heartbreaking and hysterically funny, often all at the same time. So happy birthday, Feng Shui Mags, happy birthday! May you continue to show me how to age gracefully and with dignity and laughter and a joy for life, and how deep, true love is truly the only thing that matters. Well, that and being balanced ala feng shui :D.
We've been calling Maggie "Feng Shui Maggie" for the last year or so when we switched to a mobile groomer who is of Asian descent. Maggie's hair is comparable to a Papillion's and is hysterically mussed up when she awakens from a nap or from a good night's sleep. Our new groomer didn't find it as cute as we did, and said "She needs balance. She's out of balance." So he clipped her hair in what can only be described as The Feng Shui Way. Here's a picture of her taken earlier in 2012 - before she started being feng shuied - right after she woke up from a nap:
Maggie is probably 90% blind, and her hearing is greatly diminished. She most likely only sees light and shadows and hears only loud noises, with everything else a muffled drone. She has cataracts, and I do, too. Although my vision isn't as impaired as hers, I have problems with seeing at night, double vision and general, all around blending of objects. I might have to stare at something for several seconds in order to delineate its boundaries and then comprehend what that object actually is - Maggie no longer tries to understand what the object is but instead relies on me (and to a lesser extent, Jeff) to keep her protected from the object.
Our backyard has a large area between the storage shed and the fence to a neighbor's yard; the fence is virtually non-existent in that area because the neighbor's tree grew so large that it overlapped the boundary line. Previous homeowners have piled gardening debris (unused pots, etc. - we recycle ours!) to form a sort of barrier between the yards. It wasn't enough to keep our three dogs from straying from our yard, so we plugged up part of the area with an unused white child's gate. It's weatherproof, durable and although aesthetically kind of tacky, okay, it's really tacky, it does the trick. Several nights ago Maggie went outside, did her business and instead of walking back toward where I was standing by the deck waiting to carry her inside (she's no longer willing to climb stairs), she went running right to the child gate. Huh? Then I realized it's short, wide and white (a LOT like me - ha!) and was patiently standing there waiting for her to finish (again - a LOT like me!). In the past I would have thought she was suffering from doggie dementia or Alzheimer's, but now that I, too, have vision problems, I understood her confusion. Here's a picture of the tree, shed and gate from where Maggie had "finished her business":
I'm thankful and grateful that after half a century (including my childhood) of pet ownership that I have precious Maggie with whom to age alongside. It's been fascinating, eye-opening, heartwarming, heartbreaking and hysterically funny, often all at the same time. So happy birthday, Feng Shui Mags, happy birthday! May you continue to show me how to age gracefully and with dignity and laughter and a joy for life, and how deep, true love is truly the only thing that matters. Well, that and being balanced ala feng shui :D.
