[Dailydrool] What Our Elsinore Did on Her Summer Vacation (concluded)

[Elizabeth Lindsey]

Part II

**Instituted the New Ritual of Daily Snack Time**
When it comes to food, young Charlie's like me and can kind of take  
it or leave it. If Elsinore weren't here, he could make a bowl of  
kibble last all day. But Elsinore likes to eat, and this summer she's  
decided her day isn't complete if it doesn't have a proper snack in  
the afternoon. She comes to let me know it's snack time and then  
heads for her crate to lie down and wait for me to do my part of the  
ritual. If I don't perform quickly enough, she finds me again to  
remind me. Some days she decides Snack Time needs to happen a little  
earlier than normal, or happen a couple of times instead of just once.

**Picked Up a Second Shift at Work**
That Elsinore is such a go-getter. She now works two shifts once a  
month at the hospice where she's employed as a pet therapy dog. In  
the morning we go to one of the hospice's hospital units. In the  
evening we go to the hospice residence where she's been employed for  
5 years. We're now getting a lot more mileage out of the bath and  
grooming that has to happen within 24 hours of a pet therapy visit,  
which I'm happy about. Elsinore likes the extra attention. She gets  
quite a lot of that at the hospital unit because she's the only pet  
therapy dog who ever darkens its doors. When she walks in, the staff  
treat her like a rock star. I figure we'll keep doing two visits in  
one day for as long as Elsinore seems to feel up for it.

**Kept Her Faithful Early Bedtime Routine**
For the last couple of years, Elsinore has been putting herself to  
bed shortly after dinner. If she could have it her way, she'd be put  
to bed about 7pm, but the child in me rebels at the thought of having  
to go to bed that early, so I make her stay up to 7:45 or 8.  
Elsinore's crate is always open and available to her, and she could  
put herself to bed at any time she wants. But the thing is, her  
bedtime routine has always included the receipt of a large dog  
biscuit to help keep her from throwing up stomach acid at 5 the next  
morning. Of all the dogs I've known, she's the one who's most needed  
a steady, reliable schedule and who asks that it be implemented when  
she feels it's starting to slip. The bedtime routine has always been  
my giving her a biscuit before closing her into her crate at night,  
and we can't change that now after all these years. So she eats  
dinner, settles on a dog bed for half an hour or so, and then begins  
campaigning to be put to bed.

**Decided to Get Up Early**
It used to be that Elsinore would stay quietly in her crate until I  
got up about 7 or even 8 the next morning. But this summer she seemed  
to realize she was missing out on too much the day by waiting for me.  
So she started barking about 5:30 or 6 to have her crate door opened,  
which I did without any semblance of graciousness. The first couple  
of times I thought she really had to go out. But she doesn't. She  
just wants to get her day started. Sometimes that means getting out  
of her crate, stretching, and then going back into it again to doze.  
Other times it means going back to sleep on one of the dog beds in  
the living room.

I do not care to rise and shine that early, so Ken's new morning  
routine is to let both hounds out of the crates and open the doggie  
door for them when he gets up at 5. Fortunately Elsinore hasn't  
decided to add the routine of hip-bumping my side of the bed when she  
thinks breakfast should be served. Yet.

**Started Looking Old**
I'm relieved to report that Elsinore's starting only to look old, not  
act it. Unless you count her insistence on being put to bed for the  
night before it's dark outside. We're guessing she's 11 or 12 now,  
but she has the energy level of a 7 year old. Her enthusiasm for life  
and doing things remains undiminished. I try to focus on this when I  
look at her almost-white face and see the cataracts and the "old-dog"  
hollows that have formed over her eye sockets. Periodically she  
stumbles when she's trotting along. The vet says it's probably some  
arthritis in her shoulder.

When Elsinore had her teeth cleaned in April and the vet said it'd  
probably be the last time she'd need them cleaned, it hit me hard  
that we're on borrowed time with her now. She's at that age where  
something could take her down fast. That made her two summer stomach  
ailments all the more frightening for me than they would have been  
had she been 4. Because I'm more aware of those grains of sand  
trickling through in her egg timer, I try harder to ensure each day  
has some good time spent together, she and I, and every night when I  
tuck her into bed, I tell her how much I love her and how glad I am  
she's ours. There'll only be one Elsinore, and I'm so glad that  
*we're* the ones who got her.

**Entered Her First Pin-Up Calendar Girl Contest**
It must have been on her bucket list or something, but our Elsinore  
has entered the Senior Hounds Abound calendar contest. She'd be  
pleased for any votes you might want to give her. The submitted photo  
isn't a glamour shot, but it's pretty representative of her  
personality--a really fun gal to do things with and who's quite good  
at giving directions when she thinks you need them.

Elizabeth
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.dailydrool.org/pipermail/dailydrool-dailydrool.org/attachments/20120903/5e105279/attachment-0001.htm>