I’ve been light in my posts today, but thought I’d share this with you before retiring for an early night. Both of us are shattered having not slept that well again last night for a variety of reasons.
Maggie is 14 now, so that puts her well into her 70s according to this chart.
At 16.4 kilos (36lbs or thereabouts) she is in the medium sized dogs bracket.
She has been rather playful today.
Actually, I shall rephrase that.
It’s been like having a fourteen month old puppy in the house.
We have been very careful when choosing toys for her as she has a soft mouth and is not one for chewing. They have to be easy for her to make squeak as they are her babies, and she loves them accordingly.
Should we be ignoring her, a baby will be brought to us and either laid gently on our laps or to one side in our line of vision. It’s usually a sign that she wants to go out.
Photos: Christmas 2018, a bit fuzzy, but all babies present and correct.
Today, she has wanted our attention, not for fuss, walks, or food, but play.
We have been playing footsie, tickling her toes and ‘pouncing’ on her feet, then the other of us tweaks her bum or tail. She loves it, and returns the play by pouncing on our hands.
Barney loved to play this too, but had ticklish feet and would tuck his feet up under his armpits!
It’s been lovely to watch her, and we kept it up for almost an hour!
She’s crashed out now, but perfectly content.
Photos: February 2019
Seeing her sleeping like this makes me aware of her age. At night, she snuggles up to me with her babies and is asleep in minutes. Once or twice in the night she might stir or whimper, but most times, she will sleep through until around 6.30 and one of us will let her out if she bothers.
She’s bright eyed and cold nosed, still loves to go for her walks, has a good appetite and is drinking well. Some days she is really stiff in her joints and slow, so we don’t push her and let her set the pace. Overall, she is good for her age and in good health.
But “the candle always burns the brightest before it fades” keeps creeping into my mind and although it hurts thinking about it, I wonder (and worry).
pensitivity101 
Scrappy turned 15 last November, and is an old bird now – and has these mad moments more or less every day – very sturdy. Bit heavier than yours weighing in at 28kg, medium to large breed. Very ricketty now, demands her two walks per day, eats like a horse, poops like it’s going out of fashion. Never been much of a social player, but has really learned to love it in the last 12 months or so. Runs around the garden at 90 miles an hour most days despite being limpy.
She is on metacam daily now which helps her enormously and we are trialing her on a new organic product called Extend which can be used in additon to the metacam.
I thought over the 2016/17 New year l was going to lose her when she had IVDD arrive in her life. Vets said she would never walk again, yet three months into 2017 she was back in full swing.
The beauty of dogs is they have more reserves for life l feel than we humans do at times. Like you we are very conscious of her age, and at times l have to watch her very closely at times when she is asleep to make sure she is still breathing.
but l know where your mind is 🙂 x
Thanks Rory, I appreciate this more than you realise.
We have metacam in reserve for Maggie’s arthritis, but won’t give it to her every day as we understand it can affect her kidneys. The vet says what we are doing is OK and if she needs meds every day, there is an alternative. She has half a crushed glucosamine tablet in her breakfast every day and we have seen an improvement.
I’m aware of the breathing thing too. If she were to go in her sleep, it would be what I would wish for her. x
Same here. Suze and l said that we wouldn’t put her through any more ops because of her age. We like most dog owners don’t ever want to have to make that decision and pray that when she goes, it’s on her terms, and going for the long sleep is better for all parties.
it’s funny, the difference between vets isn’t it. Our vets here have her prescribed on daily metacam at 25ml per day at their direction for her own arthritis. The Extend is another alternative for the arthritis again. I can’t say much on the latter, as she is only in her second week of receiving it. i bought it as it was on special offer at a £10, rather than it’s suggested price at £50. I mean you don’t mind trialing something for a tenner, but you do at a bullseye 🙂
She has been on daily metacam since Jan 2017 and we have seen a remarkable difference to her, l mean she was great before hand, but IVDD really wrecks a dog, and it ages them really quickly, so we were ultra concerned.
Like you with Magiie, at these ages, we just treasure all the moments we have as a family 🙂
She’s our baby and we want the best for her, same as you do for Scrappy. Maggie’s dosage is 15 ml and when I gave her the full dose, I thought I’d killed her! The vet suggested 10 after that so we’ve stuck with it, though sometimes I give her 8 just to take the edge off.
We do what we do, because they are family, our friends and our closest companions 🙂
The other thing is even more important – we know our dogs personally, whereas vets only know the dogs through files, so you are quite right we have to do what we have to do and administer what we think they can cope with 🙂
We had to make a decision we weren’t prepared for with Barney. Even after 14 years it still hurts to think about it, but we had to put him and his quality of life first. I lasted 6 days before we got Maggie.
She is so dear to you.
That she is. We loved Barney and Kiz too of course, but Maggie has been with us the longest and hopefully a good while yet.
Hopefully! 😍
Dogs don’t recognize age. Maggie truly believes she’s still a playful puppy. Such a sweetie!
It is lovely to see.
Totally understand having just gone through all this to the inevitable conclusion with Little Monkey.
I remember thinking how sad I was that her days were numbered, but that she had no idea and lived each day to the full.
As long as they are not in pain, still mobile and eating, with a will to live, all we can do is enjoy every moment we still have with them.
I know. And we do. We let her set the pace on our walks, keeping a watchful eye on her movement as she tends to forget sometimes and mis-steps.
Bless LM.
Oh LM was haring round the garden right up to the last, even though she left her back legs behind! I learned a lot from her.
Hugs to Maggie 🙂
Thanks.