Your Dying Spouse 114 - The Service Dog Blues

We're linked to Messy Marriage's Wedded Wednesday...please visit Beth's wonderful website for faith, love, and wisdom.

This post is a change of pace. I...we...hope you'll enjoy it.

I have two service dogs. The one you see in the right'hand sidebar is Sylvia, a large and very warm-hearted Pit Bull.

The one pictured below is a Red Heeler named Ladron. She is not quite as fast as Syl, and thereby hangs a tail...uh, tale.

Ladron is very attentive, and very alert. She sleeps right next to my shoulder, and if I stop breathing, she calls in The Muscle...Sylvia...who will jump up and down on my chest in a field-expedient canine version of CPR.

They have brought me back a couple of times...and yes, you can stop breathing and be conscious. It sucks.

Ladron is at my side 24/7; she helps me feed other dogs, for instance. She is perfectly capable of carrying a dish full of food to someone else, opening a feeding crate, and putting the dish inside. She does not steal food - ever - and no one is brave enough  to mess with her.

Especially since she doesn't sleep much. When I sleep - and I don't sleep much, either instead lying awake trying to biofeedback the pain into something manageable - she's awake, watching.

Unfortunately, her diligence can cause her problems...since I have a real problem with nausea...

I throw up a couple of times a day...often quite a bit of blood comes up as well.

When I go down, I go down hard, and the girls move to keep me from hitting my head on the floor, but when Syl realizes that something is about to happen, she scuttles backward (and she can back up faster than most dogs can go forward).

Ladron hasn't mastered that art, and by the time she spins around it's usually too late.

And it's bath time.

Ladron does not like baths.

And thus, so you can get an idea of The Service Dog Blues, and for your viewing pleasure...

If you can.please do leave a comment. I am trying to answer all, and I am failing, but please know this - I read and treasure each one.

Below are my recent releases on Kindle -please excuse their presence in the body of the blog. I haven't the energy to get them up as 'buttons' in the sidebar. You can click on the covers to go to the Amazon links (they're 99 cents each). And if you'd like a free PDF, please email me at tempusfugit02 (at) gmail (dot) com, and I'll gladly send them