People often tell me that they cannot believe that Holly is almost 12. Quite often I cannot believe it either, I have no idea what happened to the last 12 years. However I do know that it involved a lot of mud!
More than a few times over the past 12 to 18 months I have said I think that I don't have much longer left with Holly. But she is still here and still going, I don't know if it is her stubborn streak or what that is keeping her around, but there are a few signs visible to others as well as me that she is getting old and that the canine degenerative myelopathy is progressing.
Holly now sleeps the sleep of the old dog.
The deep sleep that even sound doesn't penetrate (except possibly the sound of a can opener).
That deep, dreamless sleep that causes owners to panic, even the owners who have had old dogs before. The one where the breathing is very shallow and slow, the heartbeat slows right down and you wonder if they are still alive.
She still dreams when not in a deep sleep, but the back legs no longer kick.
Sometime in the Autumn I started to notice her occasionally stumble and loose footing on her front legs. Sometimes it was when she was in her wheeled cart and sometimes when she was being supported with the scarf-sling, but it wasn't very often and as she never fell over there was only me that noticed it. As with everything it has gradually got worse with time, now she is stumbling more frequently and occasionally falling over. It is more noticeable when she is tired or the terrain is not Holly friendly and it's now happening enough that other people have noticed it. Fortunately all our walking friends know that the best thing to do is to help her back to her feet, say something along the lines of "Come on Old Girl, lets keep going" and not make a fuss.
When people have said in the past that the wheels must have drastically altered our walks I have told them that it hasn't. The only two changes are that we no longer walk along a couple of paths down by the river where the path is narrower than the wheels, and when we go out and about in the countryside we go with someone else to help lift her over styles. But over the past few months we have slowly being changing our walks. We check out the terrain before and try to avoid walks that are too hilly or will involve a lot of uneven paths.
Its sad that she can no longer race up and down hills and needs a bit of a push or a pull to get there. But she still tries and still wants to go, so we still go up and down the hills. The humans provide assistance to help her up the hill, once up there she explores and sniffs. Then in true Holly style races down the hill at great speed sending everyone else leaping out of the way before standing at the bottom of the next hill looking at us waiting for us to assist her up. Spoilt? Probably but right now I think it's important for her to enjoy her walks and if that means a bit of a push and a pull to get her to the top of the hill and sniff the breeze, then that's what she gets.
We have good days and bad days, the number of bad days is increasing but there are still significantly more good days. I could do with a little more sunshine and a little less rain to enjoy them in, Holly of course doesn't care and still doesn't think a downpour should delay our walks for any longer than it takes me to don waterproofs!
