Update on Annie the Schnauzer

I have received a comment or two asking about our Furry Kid….Annie, the Schnauzer.  Long time blog readers will remember that Annie was diagnosed with severe heart disease last August.  At that time, things were really touch-and-go for her.  I’m pleased to announce that she is still with us and among the living.  That does not mean that she is well by any means.  It only means that she is alive and enjoying the life of an RV traveler when we are away from Tumwater.

These days her life is lived as she wants it.  We make no demands on her and pretty much let her call the shots on how much she wants to walk and how much she wants to eat.  When we got back to Tumwater we made an appointment with the vet to have her looked at.  We like to have her checked out every few months.  We don’t want her living in pain, plus we like to have the doctor listen to her heart and lungs and see how things are going inside there.  Her latest check indicated that her heart rate was good and her lungs seemed clear.  Of course she is on 3 different heart meds so that helps the heart to function as best as it can.

She also has to have eye drops twice a day, every day of her life, due to a dry eye problem that will cause blindness if left untreated.  Annie sees an animal eye specialist for that.  Here are her meds and the pill organizer we had to get to keep things straight!  Can we all say:  cha-ching, cha-ching every time we get them refilled.

Annie spends a good deal of her day flat out on the floor somewhere.  She sleeps a lot these days.  Saturday it was time to take her out for a little potty-walk and Bruce called her and called her.  The Grands were here making their usual racket and she wasn’t bothered by it at all.  Slept through the whole thing.  I finally had to go over to her on the floor and gently shake her awake for her walk.  She doesn’t go far on her walks most of the time, but we need to get her out to the grass to go potty.

Annie doesn’t seem to be bothered by the girls presence at all.  She doesn’t get nervous with them around or seem stressed out.  Quite the contrary.  She loves to see them and gets excited when we go over to their house on babysitting mornings.  Last night during their sleep over she jumped up on the sofa bed and slept between them.

We’ll find her in our bedroom sometimes during the day sleeping up on the step gently snoring away.  Even while I took this photo of her, she kept her eyes closed and was sleeping deeply.

For the past 3 days her appetite has really been off.  She did this while we were away on our last trip and then she began eating more food again.  Now she is in another phase where we cannot get her to eat much.  We coax her by putting a few plain Cheerios on top of her dog food.  She’ll go over and pick the Cheerios out and leave the dog food.  If she gets hungry and feels like eating, then I guess she will. 

We worry about her, but at this point there is nothing more we can really do to help her.  Some days we think she is on death’s door again.  The next day she’ll be perky and want a longer walk around the row of RV’s or something.   Her time will come when she’s ready for it.  In the meantime, we just keep loving her and try to care for her in all the ways we know how. 

She’s got a great life, this little Annie.  She has been an RV traveler since she was 6 months old.  She’s been from Alaska to Nova Scotia.  She’s gone to Walt Disney World 4 times and has been to at least 30 states.  I have to say she really prefers the cool weather states over the hot weather states.  She enjoys her summers here in Tumwater a lot more than being in the South during the summer months. 

Hopefully, she’ll get to enjoy a few more trips before she has to cross the Rainbow Bridge!   We want to take her to Pismo Beach, California in September.  She LOVES to go there.

Until next time…..so long for now!