Gracie

I think this is my favorite picture of Gracie. She will be 12 years old this summer. Monday night, Jonathan and I took her and Mollie on a nice long walk. I had thought about leaving Gracie at home, but decided at the last second to take her with us. I usually keep her walks pretty short, but I was worried that she would get her feelings hurt. (Mollie gets to take extra walks, plus we are always taking her with us to PetSmart or to doggy daycare.)

Later that night, Fred mentioned that he was worried about Gracie. Fred, Jonathan and I started comparing notes and decided that we were all worried about her. The night before I had gotten up at 2:00 a.m. to take some ibuprofen. When I got up, I found her standing at the back door staring out the window. We have a doggy door, so she wasn't waiting on someone to let her out. I thought it was odd, but just dismissed it. When we got home Monday evening, Jonathan found her locked up in his room. Fred said that she was in the living room when he left, so we aren't sure how she ended up in there. Then, Fred said that Monday morning she was panting and following him around. With this on our mind, we all freaked out when she started making this weird noise.

Shih-tzus have short nasal passages, so they sneeze and snort a lot. However, Gracie was making a noise that we had never heard before. It was like she couldn't breath through her nose. I am sure she was allergic to something on our walk, or she snorted some grass. Regardless, we all watched her like a hawk. Fred kept asking me if I had anything to give her. He was really worried and he NEVER worries.

We sat in the glide rocker that I used to rock my babies. I cradled her and rocked her. While it soothed Jess and Jonathan, I'm not sure that it worked with Gracie. However, she did like the attention and it made Mollie mad with jealousy!

Once bedtime arrived, I thought about putting her in bed with Fred and I. But, I was worried that she might hurt herself trying to get down. Instead, I made her go to sleep on her pillow that we keep in our bedroom. I laid very still and listened to her inhale and exhale... MOST of the night. I was so worried that she would stop breathing during the night. I am happy to report that she is now perfectly fine. I think she was just having an allergic reaction to something we came into contact with on our walk. As far as the odd behavior is concerned, I think she was having a "senior moment."

At what point did she stop being just our sweet family pet? Somewhere along the way, both dogs morphed into our four-legged children. This was just a small glimpse into our future. How will I ever survive Gracie's senior years?