Slowing down

I’ll be posting excerpts from my off-line journal for a few days to bring this blog up-to-date on Winston’s recent dramas.

11/11/07
Winston’s favorite dog is Ro, a pit bull who lives across the street. She’s built like a tank and has already proved the vets wrong by living with lung cancer for many months past the date they thought she would die.

Her lung cancer flared up a few weeks ago. Once again we thought she would die, but she’s hanging on, still coming to visit Winston whenever she can escape. But when she gets here, they no longer run around like they did when they were young. They just sniff each other a lot and walk around the yard together happily.

Once we met Ro walking around our neighborhood with her humans... My heart broke when the once-mighty Ro stumbled and almost fell on the street. She’s also deaf, doesn’t respond when I call her name, but happily wags her tail if she seems me. Roi’s age 13.

Winston is also slowing down at age 11. If he’s in a sitting position and tries to stand, he moves ever so s-l-o-w-l-y. Probably hip dysplasia, so I doubled his dose of glucosamine/chondroitin. He used to jump up eagerly whenever we said his name, but not anymore. It takes coaxing -- unless a walk or food is involved. Then he’s as frisky as ever.