Gloomy

My Mistress and I are feeling gloomy. Since I first climbed round the stair gate and found my way upstairs, when I was about sixteen weeks old, I’ve slept in her bedroom. I’ve watched over her every night at home and she’s watched over me. I relax when I’m near her in a way I don’t at any other time. Now, sadly, the time has come for me to stop going up and down the flight of stairs to reach the bedrooms. Our vet thinks I may now have some arthritis in my spine. My reactions aren’t what they used to be and I’m not always getting the signals I need from my brain to my legs. Sometimes I can do stairs and sometimes it all goes horribly wrong.

A difficult discussion

Anyway, my Mistress and I sat down and had a difficult discussion. She could continue to try to support me on the stairs, and on a short flight that is probably just about ok. However, I weigh 30kg so if it goes wrong it could go wrong in quite a big way. It’s not just about hurting myself, it’s about if I were to hurt my Mistress too and I wouldn’t like that. When I’ve been ill on a short term basis she has always slept downstairs with me, but as this will now be permanent she has had to explain it would not be practical. Even the bed in the office means me going up an extra six steps to be near her. So that’s it. The end of another phase of my life. Thankfully, I’m still here and we will still get some time together, so I need to focus on that.

Baby monitor

Anyway, the baby monitor is set up and my Mistress has promised that if I call for her she’ll be there. It’s going to take some getting used to. Of course, for her it also means if any of the rest of the family stay up after she goes to bed she’s going to hear them moving around too, which may not go down too well. We’ll have to see how it all goes.

The vet asked me if I thought swimming made me better or worse. On balance I think better, so we’re going to carry on with that for now. Our Mistress wants me to keep working on the strength in my legs so that we can keep me moving as best as possible.

feeling gloomy

Alfie