I didn’t realise it’d be this hard. I didn’t realise it needed courage. I didn’t realise it’ll cause even more anxiety.
I didn’t realise notifying bad behaviour, and asking for help could be this hard. It was harder than ignoring or living with bad behaviour, which I’ve done in the past. It was way harder than fighting back, which I’ve done too often in the past.
I had strong support from R all the way1. I knew they were in the wrong. I knew if there’s retribution, it’s a cost I’m willing and able to pay.
H: Hold this cardboard in front of one eye, and look through the hole in it at those keys on the wall there.
*I hold it up on my left eye, and close the right one.*
Me: Do you want me to read the text on the keys?
H: No, that’s it. Just wanted to check which is your preferred eye.
I loved the simplicity of this experiment :)
She gave me a deliberately vague instruction. This let my mind fill in the rest based on its default behaviour. She just wanted to observe that default behaviour.
Doodles urinates in his sleep. We’d seen a small puddle on the floor or cushion when he woke up, but were not sure if it was water (he splashes a lot of it around the house), drool (he’s a dog) or urine.
Urine trickling down Dudley’s leg while he’s deep asleep
Then I noticed this. I was working, and he was sleeping on the carpet behind me. During a break, I turned around to stretch and noticed the drops on his leg. That was my confirmation. A few days later Amit also confirmed that Sm had noticed it happening.
Duds went for a check-up on Monday. They ran a few tests – checking for infection, inflammation, and stones. All came negative. The current hypothesis from the vet is that this could be behavioural.
Duds’ uber loving day care lady, Sue, suddenly passed away a few months ago. He spent a few days at home with me and his mom. And then they had to start sending him to a new day care woman.
Sue was a lovely woman – friendly, chatty, crazy about most dogs (but specially labradors), and always spoiling dogs with swims and treats. She was one of my favourite people around.
Dudley loved her like crazy. But he didn’t just lose her. He lost all the dogs he used to spend his days with – Tilly Mae, Daisy, Ralph, Archie and others. He lost all his friends.
