Wandering Where We’ll Be

6/9/2016

Three and a half months ago, I wrote that “Jake’s not eating, and we believe his time with us may be short.”  Well, Jake is still with us, so I won’t make any predictions, but wanted to provide an update.

During this time Jake has kept us in a guessing game, trying to figure out what he would eat next.  We’ve been on the constant roller coaster of finding something he likes, which he eats for two to three days and, then, refuses to eat it.  The near-daily question we ask is, “What food should we try now?”  He has liked at one time or another: tuna, ground beef, pulled pork, potato kale soup, pizza, veggie lasagna, broccoli quinoa casserole, rice soup, graham crackers, chicken noodle soup, berry pomegranate Clif bars, oatmeal cookies and more.  When we find something that he’ll eat, he has the energy to lead a fairly normal doggie existence — despite his lack of hearing and nearly total blindness.  (He knows his way around our house, yard and block fairly well, but is totally lost outside of that environment.)  When he’s not eating, he sleeps a lot and has a difficult time making it up the few steps outside our back door.  Despite his lethargy, he still wants me to take him for a walk when I get home from work.  If I know that he hasn’t eaten much recently and he seems totally wiped out when I get home, I figure I’ll just let him outside to do his business.  But when I let him out, he heads straight for the gate, as if to say, “Come on, Tim; it’s time to go for a walk.”  So, I grab his collar and leash, and we amble down the sidewalk.

And, speaking of ambling, having an old dog simply slows down all aspects of your life.  So, we go for slow walks around the block.  And, “dinner” time is definitely slower.  When Jake was younger and we were feeding him Sojo’s, we would mix up his food, and he’d scarf it down in no time flat.  Now, if Jake’s not eating well, I’ll sit on the floor with him, break off bits of cookie or Clif bar, and feed it to him, one by one.  And, he’s more sensitive to either me or Dan not being home and seems unsettled at those times, sometimes pacing around the house.  So, I’ll sometimes stop what I’m doing and lie down on the floor with him — just hang out.

On Monday of this week, Jake ate very little — a few pieces of cheese and a little quinoa burger.  And, Tuesday, he ate nothing during the day and drank very little water.  Plus, he is looking very thin — now under 18 pounds, and his back legs are unstable when walking.  While we were making supper, Dan and I were talking about our next steps, and decided that if he doesn’t eat something during the evening or in the morning, we would need to strongly consider euthanasia.  We have already researched in-home euthanasia services and decided on a service we would contact if/when the time came.

Then, after we ate, we were considering what other food we could try.  I had taken some bran muffins out of the freezer the other day, and Dan recalled that Jake may have liked the muffins when I originally made them.  Dan offered a bite to Jake, and he ate it.  Then, Dan broke up half a muffin into a dish, and he ate that.  Not wanting to upset his empty and recently-sensitive belly, we held off giving him more at that point.  Later in the evening, we set out — and he ate — the rest of the muffin.  So, he has something in his system, and I may be making more muffins after work today.

But, we know his old body is failing him and definitely don’t want him to suffer just to keep him alive.