Our dog, Sequoia has epilepsy, for years we managed to keep it under control through diet. Not long ago we had to resort to medication. The first type made her absolutely insane. Switching her medication was not as easy as it sounds because she had to be on her old medication at full dose and at the same time be on her new medication at full dose. At this point not only was she insane dog, she was insane dopey dog. She did not have a lot of muscle control in her back-end and was tripping over her own back legs. Her medication made her incredibly thirsty, her thirst combined with her loss of muscle control meant she could not hold her pee through the night, much to her dismay there were a few nights she couldn’t hold her poop either. It didn’t seem to matter what time I checked on her or how many times I would take her out by morning time I would be cleaning up pee. In retrospect I think she may have done it on purpose, payback for making her feel like crap. Unknown to her however I’d rather clean up after her than not have her around and I re-assured myself that there must be a light at the end of the tunnel. So I’m not sure who had the last laugh.
Finally we were able to stop giving her the original medication and she is doing better, only the occasional accident and has not pooped in her room at all. And praise the Lord and pass the bourbon she is so much calmer than she was. Not only that, at the 5:30am walk it was very quick, she wouldn’t even have to poop, she would quickly pee and want back into the house, I would feed her and then take her out again when we left for work, at which time she would finish her business.
A few days ago I started to think about daylight savings. Would Sequoia be able to handle that extra hour? I came up with a plan. I would ease into it over a two-day period. I usually get up at 5:30am and take her out. I figured that on Saturday I would get up at 6 and if that went well on Sunday I would get up at the new 5:30. For those of you who are a little more astute, you may already see the flaw in my plan. For the rest of us here is the problem. We were supposed to turn the clocks back on Saturday night not Sunday. So when I looked at my clock at 5:30am, that’s right it was only 4:30. I was patient and waited till my clock said 6am and I took her out. Of course it was only 5am so the reality of the situation was that I was going the wrong way. You may be thinking, so what? You went to bed at the same time so the amount of hours never changed, no big deal, just start over the following day. There is yet another twist in the road.
On the weekends, unless we have something planned I will get up at the usual 5:30am let the dog do her business feed the dog and cats and go back to sleep. We may not get up again till 10:00am. Which is exactly what happened this particular time. The difference was my wife figured out my time mistake when I got back into bed which was at 6:20am which was really 5:20am. At this time we adjusted the clock to the correct time and went blissfully back to sleep. We finally left the bedroom around 10am. As I opened the bedroom door I realized my second mistake of the new timezone. The dog had eaten earlier than usual and we were up later than usual. I opened up her bedroom door and there sat a very forlorn looking dog who had pooped on the floor.
I’m thinking she got over her incident as she got to go to Petco today and is currently fast asleep on the sofa. Having made two mistakes so quickly in the new timezone leaves me a little leary about what the rest of the winter brings.
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