Stairs
I think the stairs and I are going to fall out fairly soon. I’m not talking about the new ones. They are pretty good and whatever they say about old dogs and new tricks is quite clearly not quite right. I’m happy to use those. Our Mistress stands by the side so I don’t worry they will tip over. She encourages me up and had two treats waiting for me when I make it onto the bed and find my blanket. Anyway, it’s not those stairs I’m talking about. It’s the real ones.
What goes up…
Going up is not too much of a problem. I can coordinate all my limbs to go upward in the same direction most of the time. Occasionally I have a bit of a Bambi moment and find myself splayed across several steps but on the whole I can recover from that. It’s coming down that is the issue. My front end goes faster than my back end can manage, especially in a morning. I’ve sort of taken to walking down quickly on my front legs and letting the rest of my body slither down behind me. It’s not a long term solution. Our Mistress says it’s potentially quite dangerous.
What’s next?
I think our Mistress and I may need to acknowledge fairly soon that a full flight of stairs is no longer within my capability. I guess at that point we will be faced with three options. Firstly, our Mistress could have a dog stair lift fitted so I can go up more easily. I’m thinking she may not go with that one. Secondly, I could get our Mistress to sleep downstairs with me on a permanent basis. Thirdly, I could sleep downstairs on my own. I’m not really keen on that last one, but it might be a bit much to ask our Mistress to go for the second. What do you think? What have any of you done when you got to that point? Have your humans found solutions I haven’t thought of?
Yours optimistically
Alfie
© 2018 Rosemary J. Kind All site content is subject to copyright and may not be reproduced without written permission.