Gretchen is now asleep on the sofa in my studio, Monk’s usual place. I would take pics but my camera needs a charge and the charge cord is missing. What else is new? Anyway, I think that this is the most comfortable she has ever been in her entire life. And the cleanest. She was an angel in the bath.

In the last 24 hrs I’ve been able to notice a lot about our angel. First and formost, she is dainty is every way, obedient, loving and kind. This makes her a joy to be around and a cinch to handle. Whew.

When our vet examined her over a month ago, she said that Gretchen had proprioception problems and that everything behind the lesion was affected. This is medical jargon for “she doesn’t have normal sensation on any part of her body behind her injury”. Since the lesion (or injury in question) is in the front left side of the head, there isn’t much that’s in front of it. You can see by looking at her head that it’s a little lopsided, so there must be pressure on the left half of the brain.

But as Dr. Helton said, Gretchen has learned to compensate very well for her diminished sensation. She gets going and stays going, not unlike someone on a bicycle. Her brakes aren’t great, but they are adequate. But she does stumble from time to time and has a hard time staying upright when she shakes herself off. She tends to run in large clockwise circles because she feels more stable in this direction. Sure she turns left too, but she’s better going right.

She also seems to be lacking some sensation in the bladder region. The upside is that she has amazing bladder control. She has peed (dog lovers will understand the need to know these things) only three times in 24 hrs. I think (don’t quote me) that she doesn’t know she needs to go till she’s really full. This is great as long as you know when she went last. So we haven’t had any accidents yet. I took her out before bed to pee, thinking she would go, especially since she hadn’t gone since before sundown. Nope. I gave her 20 minutes and then gave up (I was nearly asleep on my feet) and put her in her crate and went to bed. She whimpered “good night” and then didn’t make a peep…what an angel, especially for her first night in the crate. I wakened at 3 AM to silence…hmmm. She MUST need to go by now. So I went down and let her out. She ran to the far part of the yard, did her business, ran across and peed and ran back to me. WOW! I lauded her lavishly and put her back in her crate and went back to bed. This morning she didn’t pee until nearly 11:00. Unbelieveable. This is great because once I know she’s gone, I can relax for a while and get some work done.

I’ve also noticed that she was having trouble with hard food like kibble and biquies (our pet name for dog biscuits). She can eat it, but she chews like she’s just gotten back from the dentist. So this morning I put warm water on her kibble and mixed it with a little canned food and she scarfed it down. So I think we have most of the important bases covered now.

I must say that she loves to sniff. She must be part hound. She gets into the yard, does a little happy dance to thank me, then sets to sniffing. She showed me all the deer trails, showed me how they get in and out of our vegetable garden (good dog!). Her hearing and her sense of smell are perfect. I think her sight is fine too. I just think her gyroscope is a little tilted. Now to remember all those cranio sacral moves I used to know so well…and translate them into canine.