September 20, 2012

White Dog snuggled into my arms and breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. We had just left Dr. Julia's office, a place which reduces the leader of the White Dog Army to a shaking, trembling, whimpering wreck even just sitting in the lobby.

We had decided it was time for our pup's medical advisor to take at look at White Dog. She still wasn't jumping up on the bed or on the couch or running zoomies in the grass at the Park. She was still withdrawn and crabby. Ten days was plenty of time for a casual muscle pull or bruise to be healing...and our spidey sense was starting to tingle.

I held the Little White Dog of My Heart and calmed her. "Well, Baby Girl, you will always be our baby girl, seems like middle age is catching up with you. Together we are destined to get old and creaky and lose our youth." Dr. Julia had done xrays after her exam discovered some weakness in WD's back legs. Her knees showed some slight inflammation (the left more than the right), a pre-sign of arthritis. There is no joint damage or bone wearing yet thank goodness.

White Dog will be eight this December. Where has the time gone? I still think of her sometimes as the 3lb. ball of fluff I used to roll all over the bed while singing "rolly-polly puppy").When did she become middle aged? She is regal and poised and elegant now not a crazy uncoordinated pup, but she still flows like silk across the grass when she runs and she nimbly jumps over a sleeping sibling who might be blocking her path. This momma is not ready to think "arthritis."

Dr. Julia prescribed an anti-inflammatory to be taken for a week and the addition of glucosamine to White Dog's diet. For the future, WD can be given the drugs as needed and needs to forsake the "highly athletic" things she used to do like agility jumps. Walking, lots of walking, and running at a comfortable pace...those are highly recommended.

Even after just two doses of the meds, our "normal" White Dog is starting to return. Once the swelling is gone, I am certain that she will once again be fine...I know that because when my knees hurt, I too, am crabby and withdrawn.

So tonight my girl and I watched sunset together, sitting comfortable on the soft couch on the sun porch. We turned to look at each other with the same acknowledgement of the irony as a car passed with the blaring radio playing the Grateful Dead's "Touch of Grey."