pepto dismal

another of my favourite photos ... of Jake & me

I love this photo because it sums up the relationship I have with this dog, he's one of those soul mate dogs, every now & then there's a dog who shares your life that you have an extra special connection with. He's incredibly kind and gentle, strong and unflappable, he's my comfort, he's my hero. This photo is from a few years ago, back when my guest room was painted lavender and the floors were a purplish blue. The guest room is now the colour of chocolate pudding with glossy black floors.

I actually slept in this morning. 5:22 - had an awful night, my boy (Jake) isn't feeling well, he's suffering from a bad bout of diarrhea and I was up a billion times in the night and when I wasn't up I was dreaming bad dreams (nightmares ?) about a team of concerned friends, allies, neighbours and even neighbourhood children who had decided to help me clean up my home, my yard and garden ... my life. Which believe me would not be a bad thing, the bad part was the embarrassment & humiliation, plus in dreamland the chaos and squalor, the dust and the hair, and the piles of stuff seemed much more exaggerated. So between listening, while sleeping, so I wouldn't miss the sounds of the boy pacing around downstairs, meaning he needs to go out, or getting up and finding I hadn't heard him in time and cleaning up a few accidents (thankfully he has a favourite spot on my shittéy old linoleum floors that he goes if an accident should happen and I had, in anticipation, covered this spot with newspapers) not much true sleep actually happened. Poor Noodle, I think his bum is sore from all of this. But he's still eating ...which for Jake is a very good sign ... when he stops being interested in food we know that things are very serious.

We had a terrible scare in April of this year when he suddenly just completely stopped eating. This is a dog who just this week ate an entire green pepper, seeds and stem, he stole off the counter and if you recall, just a month ago, he ate half a dozen everything bagels and some of the plastic bag that they came in, before I had a chance to put my groceries away. He'll eat anything, and on our morning hikes, he sniffs out lots of little wildlife delicacies (if you get my drift) along with a few dead crab legs and a healthy serving of seaweed. I suspect that he has eaten something bad. Diarrhea and Jake are old friends, this is not uncommon, however when you're best friend is nearly thirteen and you've been through one recent close call, well, it's difficult not to panic. We have a vet in the village now, so we know longer have to make the 40 min. (because I drive the speed limit) trek to town. I've made a big ol' pot of white rice, and I have a big bottle of Pepto-Bismol (which I soak whole wheat bagel pieces in and then smear with peanut butter -yum) and I'm going to wait until we're back from our walk before I decide if we should make a trip to the vet.

My guess is this will pass, he's just eaten something that's not agreeing with him. At the moment he's lying here beside me snoring softy, he and Winnie Dixon, waiting patiently for the action to begin. I do love those dogs.