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\u2019ve slept in her bedroom. I\u2019ve watched over her every night at home and she\u2019s watched over me. I relax when I\u2019m near her in a way I don\u2019t 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\u2019t what they used to be and I\u2019m 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, my Mistress and I sat down and had a difficult\ndiscussion. She could continue to try to support me on the stairs, and on a\nshort flight that is probably just about ok. However, I weigh 30kg so if it goes\nwrong it could go wrong in quite a big way. It\u2019s not just about hurting myself,\nit\u2019s about if I were to hurt my Mistress too and I wouldn\u2019t like that. When I\u2019ve\nbeen ill on a short term basis she has always slept downstairs with me, but as\nthis will now be permanent she has had to explain it would not be practical.\nEven the bed in the office means me going up an extra six steps to be near her.\nSo that\u2019s it. The end of another phase of my life. Thankfully, I\u2019m still here\nand we will still get some time together, so I need to focus on that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, the baby monitor is set up and my Mistress has\npromised that if I call for her she\u2019ll be there. It\u2019s going to take some\ngetting used to. Of course, for her it also means if any of the rest of the\nfamily stay up after she goes to bed she\u2019s going to hear them moving around\ntoo, which may not go down too well. We\u2019ll have to see how it all goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The vet asked me if I thought swimming made me better or worse.\nOn balance I think better, so we\u2019re going to carry on with that for now. Our\nMistress wants me to keep working on the strength in my legs so that we can\nkeep me moving as best as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
feeling gloomy<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alfie<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"