our Wishbone

first of all, i don't like our dog. i'm not really a pet person (i keep saying these things in hope that it would make me stop worrying and caring about the silly dog).

Wishbone is the best dog ever! he is terribly sweet and loving. as Valerie and Ainsley learned to walk they would pull themselves up on him. he would just let them, never nipping at them nor barking. we would try to prevent the girls from doing so but as other 'rents will attest it's impossible to always keep your kiddos in line.

he's a wonderful dog--sweet, loving, and kind. he's around 9 years old and getting "old" too soon. this year he has developed diabetes and has a moderate hear murmur as well. we've been working on getting his insulin dosage just right but so far i don't think we've hit that perfect number. he was into the vet about two weeks ago to get his blood levels checked out. the doc noticed that he was beginning to have cataracts. last night we noticed that he's now blind. both eyes are fully covered and he walks tentatively around, so as not to bump into things if he can help it. the other night i was giving him a treat and dropped it in front of him and he couldn't find it so i had to pick it up and give it to him by hand.

he just seems sad these days. i hope we can do surgery to get rid of his cataracts in hopes that it would pep him up. joel doesn't think the vet will operate on him due the heart problem. tomorrow he's going to the vet for more labs and we should find something out. it's crazy, we have friends whose dog has cancer (and has had it for many years) and she is 15 years old or something. then our little Wishbone is 9 and seemingly falling apart.

it wouldn't bug me so much if he didn't seem so depressed. i love that dog and it sucks! when joel found out that i had never had the experience of a pet dying he thought we should get a dog because i should understand how terrible it is. i had made a not-so-nice comment about a friend of ours needing to get over her cat dying already. everytime Wishbone gets sick, i now get mad at joel because he brought on us all this misery!

i take it all back--losing an animal is like losing a person. i don't want to lose our Wishbone anytime soon, she just seems so young for all of these problems. however, the doc told us that schnauzers don't live much past 10-12 years. how terrible is that?!

anyway, if you ever say prayers for animals please say a prayer for Wishbone.