Charlie’s Blog

3/28/10

Not much has changed here with Charlie and I. I still treat his eyes twice a day with opti immune ointment for his dry eye syndrome. I switched him to moist food a long time ago to help spare his teeth from the rigors of hard food due to his age and the associated weakening of his teeth. His hearing and eye sight are also somewhat compromised. Perhaps I am being too picky cause overall his health is terrific for his age. He will 14 in September and I could not ask for better health given his age.

When we go out and I have him on his leash he is very slow. He can’t see that well so hesitates quite a bit when walking. I have to be very patient. When I’m in a place where I can have him off leash he loves it. When I call to him he has trouble zeroing in on me per his hearing and vision problems. Still it is a great joy to see him exploring and smelling. He loves it!

We sit together on the couch as we always have and he lays on top of me when I am lying down on the couch. This is so wonderful; I have always loved this as it is so endearing! He always gets drowsy and falls asleep when with me on the couch. I lift him on and off the couch cause he can’t jump up on it. I don’t want him to jump down and hurt his back so I lift him down.

Charlie has always hung out around the dinner table hopeing for a treat but is getting rewarded more as of late. Our one year old son is always dropping something on the floor while at the table so this is proving a bonanza for Charlie. He got to eat eight or nine Cheerios earlier today that my son had dropped.

Speaking of my one year old…I kinda dread having to go through the process again of teaching a child how to handle Charlie. I got my five year old through the process pretty well. I’ll have to teach my one year old a million times to be gentle with Charlie just as I did with my five year old when he was younger. Oh well, I’ll be patient and do my best to protect Charlie.

A revelation I recently had is the correlation between Charlie being clean and his cooperation in going to the bathroom correctly. When Charlie has been bathed and cleaned and feels good and fresh he is much more accurate in using his Wizdog. When het gets dirty and needs a bath he will more often miss his Wizdog or have an accident a foot or two away. I’m absolutely sure there is a connection here.

Please click on the photos of Charlie below to enlarge.