Sweetie

 Thursday three weeks ago I came home from school and couldn't find Sweetie.  I feared the worst.  She wasn't under the RV or by the east fence.  I finally spotted her lying near the front door against the honeysuckle.  She looked exhausted.  Relieved to know she was still among the living, I approached her.  She was happy for her usual back rub, but seemed shaken.  Had there been a big dog fight between her and Fritz?  He had been fighting with her in short spurts and Sweetie always acquiesced.

Sweetie let me know she didn't want to come back toward the RV, so I made her a little dog house against the west fence, under the oleander shrubs, offering some shade from the setting west sun.  She stayed there for three weeks.  I came by twice a day to check on her.  She napped a lot the first week, but started walking around the west side of the house in the last two weeks.

Last night she mustered the courage to come back toward the RV and bark, but I didn't let her in the RV. It was 1:30am and she probably barked because it was a cold night.

When I got the dogs ready for their morning walk this morning, under a cooler-than-usual spring breeze, she insisted on joining us.  She hadn't been walked in the past three weeks.  She let me know she was ready for her walking routine. That dog is very head-strong.

She walked three laps.  The first lap was with Gretchen, but I was startled to see Gretchen attack Sweetie aggressively even before we started our walk. It was still before sunrise so I couldn't see detail, but on the final stretch back home, Sweetie's hind legs gave out.   She continued dragging her hind legs (nothing stops that dog!) but I could tell she was in pain.

Had her insistence on staying on the west end of the house these past three weeks been because of an injury during a dog fight?  Had she suffered nerve damage?  Did she simply need time to heal?

It pained me to see her drag herself for the length of three houses.  But then she was able to get back up again (whew!) and walk two more laps, with Hansel and Fritz.  She didn't have any more collapses, but I could tell by the way she walked that her rear right leg is a little crooked.

When it was time to leave, Sweetie insisted on resting on the west side of the house.  I gave her her own water pan and a big ham hock.  All the dogs got one ham hock for breakfast today.

Sweetie has had prior episodes of rear leg failure, as far back as 2019, but today was the first time I witnessed her drag her legs so painfully.  It's her rear right leg that is weaker than her rear left leg. 

I will be watching Sweetie carefully moving forward. Ten years ago she was the one who would quickly attack other dogs in the pack, like Sara the week before she died in July 2013.  I came home from walking the other dogs in Hunter Canyon and saw a pool of blood on the back patio, and Sara hiding in the bedroom, licking her front right joint.  Sweetie's face was covered in blood, too.  I got Sara patched back up through Dr. Snyder in Bisbee, but other health conditions (bladder cancer?) took her life that Saturday.

It's funny how our roles reverse as we age.  Sweetie, once the warrior dog quickly to fight with other dogs, now quickly drops to the ground in acquiescence when she gets attacked by the younger dogs. She understands her role in the pack as the lone old dog. She is my last hold to Kevin and I will protect her as much as I can, or as much as she will let me.  She is a very independent dog.