It has been so long since I have posted here due to issues with accessibility to internet and wifi. So much has gone on and so much is changing. Hopefully with this little computer I can post more often if necessary until my days of using a service dog are fully gone and behind me. That may be sooner than later.
My Service dog Rowena is now Sixteen years and three months old. She stopped working at age fourteen. Her hind legs were not able to do stairs anymore, so we took one last hike that fall and merged her out of working public. At sixteen, Rowena is now mostly blind, mostly deaf, very unstable, but still wanting to be the center of everything unless she is sleeping on her Serta orthopaedic dog bed. We have a new Border Collie named Rhydian who flunked out being a service dog right off the bat. More about her later. Rowena doesn't play much at all, but outside once in a while she will go hopping off after the ball or Rhydian. Keeping Rowena clean is hard because she is becoming incontinent. She has a touch of doggy dementia that she takes meds for and someone sleeps downstairs with her everynight to make sure she can get outside, stays out of trouble, and that messes are cleaned up. She used to sleep with us (my husband and myself) on the bed, then when climbing up and down off of that got too much, she retired to dog beds on the floor next to the bed. Now that we have moved, the bedroom is tiny, and up a flight of stairs. When she begins pacing or whatever, there is no room for her. She is definitely a geriatric dog in every sense of the word. We are watching her closely for "that time", and I dread it with all my heart. I have become her helper.
I suspect everyone has their opinions on when a service dog should be required to retire, and when a dog should be put down, but Rowena and I are on our own journey. We are doing what seems to work for us right now. By sharing anything in this blog, I open myself up to the angry bitter world that has become the online service dog handler community, specifically the owner-trainer world. There are a few empathetic service dog using souls out there, but generally, support groups have become a cluster f88ck. I know a few handlers Facebook that I chat with and maybe occasionally share photos with, but for the most part I don't share much of anything. I don't have any friends off line that use a service dog, so my support system is nil.
Until I get a new card reader, the only photos I can share are ones from Google that I have taken. I have found a few photos from this summer, which because of Covid-19 was pretty boring and low lying. Rowena turned Sixteen on September 3rd, 2020. Here is a photo of my aging girl on a roadtrip, and one of me on my fiftieth birthday with her at my feet as it should always be... just her and me.
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