It really is like that. The latest thing is that Rack, my elderly McNab SuperDog (TM) wants out. Every hour. It wouldn't be so bad if he did something but, well this is new, he walks out to the yard and stops. That's about all of it. Just stops. He notices that I am waving to him and telling him to go on about his business, and sometimes that works.
Mind you, I am doing this sort of thing all day long. Up at 5AM, I walk out in boxer shorts and trying to get CBC radio working on Sirius. I look up and he's looking off into the distance. I would rather be inside because this morning Your Weather Was Drunk On My Lawn at 44 degrees freakin' Fahrenheit. That being the devil's temperature of 6.66 degrees Celsius for the imperially impaired.
I am a good 8 miles south of the freeze line. It never gets cold enough to freeze here, and it will warm enough to be merely annoying later.
With him being elderly, I am never quite sure if he can hear me. Some may say it is "Selective Hearing", so I get the idea to test it. When my prior dog, Lettie, was still alive, she lost her hearing around 9 or 10. She still had enough that I could bend down and talk in her ear and she might just get it. At 14, that is where Rack is at, although there are exceptions like Chip Bags, and Refrigerator Doors.
Well, that is new.
Since the other delivery companies come in all sorts of trucks and personal cars, Amazon gets a grumble like Fed(arrow)Ex, and he has to see them hit the porch to make any effect.
Every dog gets to make themselves comfortable, I suppose, but digging a hole in the mat at the front door is a new thing. It's been through the washer enough times that is getting a little frayed at the corners, so it's not terrible that he is helping things along. In the evening the silence is broken by white footed paws dragging across the little gold rectangle there. Scrape! Scrape! Scrape!
Well, that is new, as well. Dogs don't normally dig to China through the doormat, do they?
That business with hearing though shows up at strange moments. If I am watching TV, and it gets too loud, he will get up and go into the bedroom and put some distance between it and him. If I laugh too loudly, same thing, he's off to the bedroom. I'm big and loud anyway, so it happens frequently, sometimes more than once in a night. I also possess access to his cookie jar so he comes back eventually, especially if I am in the kitchen looking through my own cookie jar.
Well, that is new, Hi Rack!
I have been told that hearing loss is a gradual muting of sounds until the tinnitus and ringing gets louder than what you really want to hear. The Crickets are Loud Tonight might be something he would say.
The way to get around that is to talk at him in a high and squeaky voice. I try not to do that in public because the sight of a fit 6 foot 4 inch tall man talking like a cartoon character might be a bit too much for others to handle.
Right now, the furry little idiot is sitting near the back room staring me down. That wouldn't be the first time that happened this morning, so I have to let someone out. Yet again. But staring at the sky is new as well.
Coming back into the house after being there long enough to stare at the back door, sometimes he will just sit down and stare as if to say that he wants out. Immediately after coming in. I've taken to ignoring that and putting a 90 minute time limit on all of that nonsense.
I guess that's part of the charm of having an elderly dog. Scratching your head and saying to yourself "Well, that is new."
No comments:
Post a Comment