Live from Tormville!

puppy dog eyes

She's sixteen years old. 
During the time that we've had her, her hearing has become pretty much, well, worse than mine, and her vision is shot. She can still catch air now and then, however, and she can still sniff a cat out in our backyard while in our kitchen...scaring me half to death with a rare barking streak in her panic to get outside and make chase. 

I've always wondered if we'd be able to tell when her old age aches and pains were too much.  In the near three years that we've had her, her hips have slowly gotten worse, but then she still runs and chases (herds) the kids around the yard.  More and more often there have been days that I wondered out loud WHY she would get up so often to follow me about the house when it was so obviously a struggle to get up (and down) at all.  These last few months she has admittedly driven me crazy wanting to go in, then out, then back in, then out, and in and out - as if she really wasn't sure where she wanted to be. I've been watching for signs of dementia. 

Yesterday we could tell it was too much. Yesterday she could no longer get her back half off the floor by herself. Six-thirty in the morning (yesterday and today) had me pushing her across the kitchen to the carpet so that we had more traction to do the job together just to get her outside, and then she struggled to get up the two tiny steps back up onto our deck.  She's had that struggle previously, but yesterday it was worse. 

This afternoon Tippy's previous owners are coming to visit - and I'm curious if she'll attempt to catch air one last time. This morning I'll be calling the vet to see if we can bring her in this evening. 

It was a good almost three years. 

 

She watches me work

and I swear she rolls her eyes at me. 

She'll be doing a lot of this today as I'm pulling out the card table and going to attempt to get two weeks worth of deadlines done in two days. 

Wish me luck. 

Tippy: Day 2

• At 9am this morning, I finally caved and went Tippy hunting. I'd been up since just after 7 and hadn't seen her yet.  She came out of the garage then when she heard me watering the garden. Her previous owner has since told me that, oh-no, Tippy is definitely not an early riser. 
• The boys woke up this morning (at about 9:30) and ran right outside in their jammies to give Tippy her morning hugs

• Tippy likes morning hugs. And afternoon hugs. And evening hugs. And bedtime hugs.
• She made her first peep today when Markie tripped and fell on her.
• She's playing us me and trying to convince us me that she's a house dog. 
• I made her a grooming appointment, her first ever, for Monday. But I may call tomorrow to see if I can bump it up. She can't come in the house until she's been cleaned and groomed. My allergies went full storm when she came in the first day.

• I'm curious how she'll handle grooming.
• She's never been on a leash, having been raised in the country - but she went on two walks today. One with Allan and another with Greg and the boys.  By the end of the second walk, she was avoiding the sidewalks and walking on grass, but other than that she was a good walker.
• Our neighbors are putting up a privacy fence. (true story) Their dog is not at all pleased with our new addition. 
• Tippy's previous owners came over to visit, and will be coming over to pet and play with her while we're up north.  They live biking/walking distance. Perfect.  (Their new yard isn't fenced in, or they'd have kept her)
• Wendy called tonight and said, Wait, we FOR REAL got a dog? But you always said they are too much work, too much money, they poop, they shed, they smell like dogs.  Yeah. Well.....
• When she snuck in the house tonight, I made Greg be the bad guy and shush her out, because I'm totally gunning to be favorite.
• She's out to find the chipmunk that's been living under our tree for the last ten years.
• She keeps her business to the very edges of the yard along the fence lines.  Makes clean up easy.
• She gets all sorts of perky when the motorcycle goes by.  It's a treat.
• She's perfect for us. It was meant. 

Dear Wendy

Our 10 year old is in Minnesota staying with her grandparents for five weeks, and while she is there, I like to write her letters by way of my blog. These are, obviously, open for everyone to read - I just prefer this style of writing.

-------------------

Dear Wendy,

Um. Guess what.  

As I'm typing this, there is a dog in my kitchen licking the crumbs off the floor.  HA! I know, right? 

Oh boy.

You see, it happened like this:

Yesterday the little boys and I went for lunch at Mindi's house.  (She lives right next door to your friend Maija).  Also at the lunch were your Aunt Sue and our friend Liz who lives around the corner from Dennis and Julie.  It was a bit of a crazy affair with lots of laughing and good eats.  

Anyway - as we were leaving, the boys were playing with Mindi's dog, and I took this picture:

How can anyone help but smile, right?

Anyway. I posted the picture on facebook and mentioned that it scares me how close I get to reconsidering getting a dog when I see how happy the boys get - added to the fact that you've been plotting for one for years.

To which Auntie Sue responded that Bob and Tonya need to find a home for their Border Collie - QUICK! 

I just didn't know how quick. I emailed Tonya at 5:01, right when I heard, to give me some more information on this Border Collie, because you know how I get when it comes to helping someone out.  If a dog NEEDS a home, added to the fact that my kids want a dog - that's all the justification I need.

I got an email back from Tonya a few hours later saying that they brought Tippy (that's her name) to animal control at 5:00.  I had emailed exactly one minute after. Weird, hey?

So I emailed animal control and said - HOLD THAT DOG!!!

And we were there right when they opened this morning. They were so glad that someone was coming for her, as they had all fallen in love with her right away. They let us right back into the kennel to see and meet her, but first they made sure we all had earplugs in our ears because there were a lot of dogs back there. 

While a lot of the dogs were barking, Tippy wasn't. In fact, I haven't heard her bark yet. (There were a lot of tears, good-bye's and thank yous from all the workers at the shelter when we left with her - it's quickly easy to see that those people care about every animal brought in)

She got her rabies shot while we waited, and they gave us a dog license, and $37 later we have a new dog. We had to lift her into the back of the van to get her home, because she's older than you are (she's 12/13) and can't jump up that high anymore.  

Once we got home, we brought her into the backyard and made sure the gate was shut tight, although I have a feeling she isn't going to wander too far.  She immediately scouted out her new property, even wandering all the way around the garage.  

I gave her a bowl of water and she sipped that right up, and I ran over to Danny and Dylan's house to borrow some dog food. She's been chewing on that a bit.  I don't want to buy any until I hear from her previous owners - I figure we may as well get what she was used to.  It'll also work out well because their old owners live just on the other side of town and maybe it'll be fun for the kids to bike over here and see Tippy now that they know she's here.  I'm actually kinda hoping they'll come over and walk her/let her out when we go up north next week - but if they can't, I know we have a lot of neighbors to choose from that could help and plus, dad is hoping to work shorter days so he can work on some projects around here.

She needs a good brushing and a bath, but I'll give her a bit of time to get used to us first before I dump water over her head.

Right now - Brian is holloring out the window to Ada across the street, "ADA - WE HAVE A NEW DOG AT OUR HOUSE!!"

And Allan just woke up and said, Whoa...We got a dog?  What's her name?  Me: Tippy.  Allan?  Tipsy???

And no, she's not allowed sleeping in your room. 
I don't think she'd like all those stairs.

I made a spot for her in the kitchen with the bed that came with her, but she seems to be liking the spot over by the sidedoor where all the shoes are.  Maybe she's waiting for you to come home....

xoxo

Mom