Aging

This past weekend I spent time on the cape with friends and my parents for the holiday. We’re not much for celebrating this country and, more specifically, its grossly failing government, but it was a very nice time relaxing. I mean, I did a ton of UPAA work but having that work to do in such a setting was a vacation in and of itself.

The annual symposium is fast approaching and I am leaning into he idea that if “you fail to plan to plan to fail”. That’s good advice courtesy of Taylor Swift. I am working hard to dot the Is and cross the Ts for my responsibilities.

Watching Harlow this past weekend was so interesting. She was very happy to be in the cape and she’s doing very well. The last few times I’ve taken her – once in May and again back in October, she was having trouble with her IBD and wasn’t well.

Now her tummy is in check, arthritis shots up to date, but, she is a woman of leisure now. She still approaches the path down to the water as she did in her younger years. She’ll meander down it, walking away as we call to her to come back. But where she would wander to neighbor’s houses and bark away at them for having the nerve to enjoy their own porches, now she leaves us only briefly before making her way back.

Two other sweet dogs were there too. Winnie, who is about three, and Addie who is around seven. Both sprightly and energetic. Harlow was happy to simply watch he youngsters all weekend. Occasionally, she would trot a bit after them as they raced around with a case of the “zoomies”, but Harlow quickly realized that jetting around the yard is not longer her thing.

Harlow has developed a real fear of riding in the car. It’s very upsetting. I don’t know if it’s caused by frequent visits to he vet, or her aged legs not making it easy for her to hop in and thereby causing anxiety, but regardless, when we went to leave to come back home, she cowered after I put on her seatbelt harness, and required me to walk hr tot he car and lift her in.

A few weeks ago, her vet prescribed Valium for car rides. I certainly don’t want her on more meds, but her fear and upset is so profound when we’re roadtripping, I just hate to see it and hoped for some relief for her. A half hour before we left the cape, I gave her one.

For the entire car ride home she panted, paced and stood-up, pushing her body between the car door on the far side of the and the front seat. It did not work AT ALL.

She was so happy to finally be home. I unloaded the car and put food away, unpacked. Finishing about an hour after we got home I noticed something very scary. Harlow suddenly couldn’t walk well. Her back legs were weak, wobbly and she had no balance at all.

I was so confused because it came on so suddenly, but of course my catastrophizing in set in and I was not well. Am I going to have to say goodbye to Harlow and then function at a symposium as president less than a week from now?! I envision how I would get through that, and it wasn’t pretty.

I brought her outside and she stumbled her way out. A bunny was in the back yard and she took off “running”, her back legs flopping beneath her, like she was drunk from her butt down. But she didn’t seem to be in pain.

For and hour or so which felt like five, I wrung my hands and cried, worrying that her organs were suddenly shutting down. Then something occurred to me, and I went to the computer and researched “side effects of Valium in dogs”

Sure enough – Ataxia – weakness and lack of coordination. Well, we sure do have that in spades!

So while her Valium didn’t kick in when we needed it, it certainly “worked” (though I don’t take this to mean it worked at all), SIX HOURS AFTER I GAVE IT TO HER!

Sure enough, by the next morning she was perfectly fine.