a.k.a. Doggy Dementia.
This is about our oldest dog, Suzie. She is a miniature dachshund and she is somewhere around 18 years old. Which puts her somewhere around 126 years old in dog years.
And her mind, it is a'slipping.
This
about.com article describes Suzie's behavior so well, I am suspicious that they have been peeking in our windows.
She stands at the hinge side of the door, wondering why it doesn't open and she can't get out of the room.
She randomly walks in circles. Over and over and over.
She gets stuck under things like end tables and Sofia's feeders. She wanders into the closet and stares at the walls.
And we laugh hysterically.
Because truly, these things are funny! She's cute. It's endearing. When you see her running around the house trying to get the little metal decorative table off of her back, what else are you gonna do?
Besides help her, of course. Once you contain your laughter.
She also does things that are not fun. Not funny. Not even a little bit endearing.
Like, her "loss of housetraining". Sigh.
She doesn't respond to commands. We thought she was going deaf, but it appears that she can still hear, it's just the dementia. But the sleep irregularities and barking for no reason? They are the ones that are going to drive me completely off of my rocker. She has combined the two, to save herself trouble I suppose. So when the house is quiet and she should be sleeping, she randomly decides to bark. Except that it's more of a "yelp". It is extremely loud and piercing and makes me want to rip my ears off of my head.
Alternately, I have considered putting Suzie in the washing machine and setting it on SPIN.
(I'm kidding, PETA, and stay off my blog, ya freaks.)
I honestly have no idea when I've slept for a reasonable amount of time. Sometimes, we can quiet her by wrapping her in a blanket and sort of tucking her in to her doggy bed. Sometimes, there is no consoling her. She doesn't like to be petted, picked up, or touched at all, really.
Sometimes, she wakes up the other dogs and they start barking, too. We can't keep her outside so that we can sleep, because I'm afraid she'll wake the neighbors. Even though we are a good distance away from our nearest neighbors. She is LOUD.
She is not in pain. She's just cognitively dysfunctional. The dysfunction is taking over!
There's not much we can do. And I don't feel guilty about laughing at the funny parts, not for a minute. When we were fostering for the dachshund rescue group,
I picked Suzie up from the shelter. She had been dumped off by her former family because she was old and they wanted her put to sleep. They weren't willing to pay for it, though, so they just surrendered her to the shelter. There was nothing wrong with Suzie except for untreated worms, which were quickly cleared up with meds. We kept her, thinking she would probably not live long and we didn't want her to be put through the trauma of going to yet another home. And I was attached.
That was about three years ago. She has basically been spoiled rotten for three years, because we figured she didn't have much time left and wanted her to be comfortable and happy. She had her own bed and her own blanket, and she was kept away from the other dogs a lot because they annoyed her. She has lived the good life. And we will continue to keep her comfortable for whatever time she has left here.
I just wish they made Ambien for dogs.
A former foster, Honey, with Suzie.
