Not a good day.

I’m in a funk right now because of a rather hectic morning. A little over an hour ago, Karen’s dog made a horrible crying/moaning sound and collapsed. She’s 16 years-old, with a level 3 heart murmur, arthritis and a thyroid problem. Yesterday she had a similar episode where she just fell over, I awoke to the horrifying scream coming from Karen who needed help. Today it was a bit worse, and Karen wasn’t here to witness it.

Candy did her usual pacing around the house. She spends a lot of time sleeping so I guess to get her exercise she walks up and down the hall for a little while and goes back to bed. While that may not seem like much she’s a Shih Tzu who only weighs about 15-pounds so she really doesn’t have to go very far in order to get some kind of exercise during the day.

I saw her walk past, she looked at me as she usually does “Who the hell are you?” because she’s pretty old, close to completely blind and when she sees a waving hand she attempts to come closer but half-way through will forget what she’s doing there. It happens at that age though, based on charts she’s the equivalent of an 82 year-old woman. (It’s not 1 year to us is 7 to them, it’s based on weight and actual age).

She headed down towards the living room and the next thing I hear is a screaming cry that scared the living hell out of me, her legs didn’t buckle she just toppled over and then urinated all over herself. She was barely breathing, her heart-rate very obviously increased (you could see the little thing pounding out of her chest) and usually if you touch her or if another dog (Say Bella or Princess) comes anywhere near her, she’ll typically take off. She didn’t move.

I called Karen at work and couldn’t get through the four times I did. Sean finally called and used a term other than “Emergency” because supposedly the other member of support at her job has no idea what “emergency” means and changed it to “very important, life & death situation”. Within two words “It’s Candy” she hung up the phone and within five minutes was in the drive way.

Now both her and Sean are at the Vet, they have been for a little over an hour now and I have to say I’m concerned. She did this yesterday without the cry and the urination so obviously something pretty bad is going on.

Karen is obviously upset about it. Candy is her baby and she’s reacting in a way that’s shocking to everyone. She was the sole-caretaker of her mother (Sean’s grandmother) for quite some time before she passed away. Whenever something went wrong Karen was in full control. Say Shorty (grandmother’s nickname) had trouble breathing or she broke her hip or just something that would happen to someone with disintegrating health, Karen always had the right paperwork in hand when the paramedics showed up and she knew exactly what to do in order to fix the situation.

When it comes to Candy however, it’s the complete opposite. She becomes erratic, has no idea what to do and screams bloody murder if something goes wrong and she needs someone’s help. This makes me wonder what would happen if Sean and I did actually make that move to Ohio a few months ago. Would she be able to manage a situation like this on her own? Would Candy have passed away by herself because no one was here to look after her during the day? It’s just questions on top of questions and it does scare me. Candy is Karen’s baby, she actually treats her better than Sean sometimes but that’s a whole different situation. She gets full priority and I honestly believe Karen wouldn’t know what to do with herself if Candy was no longer around.

Lately she’s accepting of the fact that she’s a very old dog and a lot of trouble to take care of. From medication, having to hand-feed her because too many things on a plate can be overwhelming, to grooming, wee-wee pads having to constantly be picked up because she refuses to go in the same place twice unless it’s clean.

It’s a lot to maintain and at the same time Candy keeps it interesting. She’ll tell on the other dogs when they’ve done something in the bedroom. She’ll tell on anyone who walks within a few feet of her because they’ve disturbed her. She’ll run too quick (which isn’t good for her heart) and wind up bumping into something because she didn’t see it coming. And while it’s horrible to laugh at something like that, she’ll then tell on the wall for being there so you honestly can show no other emotion but humor when it happens.

It’s almost 2pm, they left around 12:30. I just hope she comes home with her. Something tells me this is going to be a very difficult week.