the thirteen report

Thirteen continues to eat well, now that we're giving her the super expensive canned food. Her favorites are duck and salmon.

And also cake! In Asheville we stopped at a dog bakery and bought two little pieces of doggie cake for them. I don't remember what it was made of, but it looked like cake, complete with icing, and smelled like dog food, so we thought they'd like it. It was kind of a goofy thing to do, buying doggie treats at the doggie bakery. They almost never get treats though, and it's nice to give them something once in a while.

Jane's reaction to the cake was hilarious. She sniffed it once, gently licked the icing, then snapped the entire piece up in her mouth (I use the word "snapped" literally, her jaws made a snapping sound, it was like a cartoon crocodile) and ran out of the room to eat it in the hall. Thirteen ate more slowly, but she did seem to like it.

Lately we've been having trouble getting Thirteen to eat her pills. She's on a lot of medications, so this is a problem. For years we've been wrapping the pills in cheese and putting them on top of her food, and she eats them right up. Lately though, she's been eating around them and leaving the pills behind. We even tried putting Nutrical on them, which works sometimes, but most of the time she licks off the Nutrical and leaves the pill behind.

Cole Park suggested Pill Pockets. Which are little dog treats shaped like a tiny cup or pouch. You put the pill inside and moosh it together. I tried them with Thirteen about ten years ago and she hated them, but her eating habits have changed so much recently that I thought it was worth a try. I got the smallest ones, in chicken flavor, and she seems to like them. The woman at the front desk also suggested putting the pills in something sticky, like cream cheese or peanut butter, and then sticking it to the roof of Thirteen's mouth. The idea is that she'll swallow it while trying to get it off the roof of her mouth. We'll try that the next time the Pill Pockets don't work.

It's pretty clear -- even I have to see it -- that Thirteen is in her final decline. Both of Thirteen's vets (at Cole Park and at St. Francis) have gently suggested the possibility of cancer. I think they're probably right, but I don't want to do the ultrasound they suggested. Because really, what would we do with this information? I asked both vets this question and they both admitted the answer is "not much." The dog is 16 years old, for crying out loud.

I'm less upset about this realization that I would have expected. Not to say that I'm blase about it. On the contrary, I'm sure I'll be a wreck when it happens. Just that, I don't know how to put it. I'm not feeling the fear, the heart-clenching anxiety at the thought of her death, the way I did with the last scare, a year or two ago. When Lina died so suddenly, I was glad for her that it happened so fast, but for us it was such a shock. I've been thinking a lot about Thirteen's death in the past few months, trying to prepare myself for the inevitable. I guess it's working because I can think about it, and sometimes even talk about it with some composure. She's had a long and happy life, and I'll do my best to see that she keeps on, as long as she's still happy to be with us.