Thursday 15th June 2017 – Just a couple of old dogs

I’ve been quite enjoying some garden time with Shadow. We can potter around amiably and she doesn’t feel the need to pounce on me or use me for leap-frog when I stop to pee. (That last one is very disconcerting when Wilma does it.) She’s not such a bad old thing, although I guess young when compared to me. She can’t really remember her life before she had me for company and thankfully has maintained some of the respect she had for me when she was a puppy. I’d quite like to share the front room with her during the day, but she’s never been the best at sharing and you don’t always know if she is in a sharing mood until you find she isn’t!

Wilma’s eyes seem to be clearing up, which is good news on two counts. Obviously, we are all pleased they don’t feel sore anymore but over and above that the nightmare of giving her eye drops is coming to an end, which is good news for all concerned… except ironically Wilma as she now gets fewer biscuit treats. She has quite got used to wearing a sock over her paw and our Mistress says she can go for a walk again today, so she’s very excited. Wilma that is, not our Mistress. It takes more than being told she can go for a walk for our Mistress to be excited. Wilma has been trying out whether she can sleep in bed curled up with our Mistress at night, as I used to like doing. Our Mistress says that so far it isn’t working out quite so well. It isn’t that Wilma moves, it’s just they are not synchronised as we used to be. When I was younger and wanted to sleep curled up with her, my breathing and our Mistress’s would fall into exactly the same pattern and so neither one of us disturbed the other with any unexpected movement. We were just completely in tune. As I’ve got older I have needed my own space at night, but talking it through did make me feel wistful for the times were so utterly in tune.

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