Containment (5/6/12)

Well, at first the little woof was good about sleeping on his pee pads, but he now seems to have taken a dislike to them. This may be because they are supposedly scented with "Go Here" pheromones, in which case he may feel he is being asked to sleep on a latrine. At any rate, I spread the pads out and have to insist he lies on them, and if I'm asleep, the little woof moves and piddles on my futon.

He has also decided that the living room rug (thankfully machine washable) is fair game. I've caught four puddles on it so far. I'm trying to be responsive to his requests to go Out, but when his request is to come and stare at you and that's all, it's hard to clue in. I mean, that also means, "Gimme food," "Gimme a Greenie," "My water dish is empty," etc., and it's not very noticeable when you're trying to work. He used to know "Show Mommy" as a command, but now that his hearing is gone, so is the command. Sigh.

Helen had the idea of putting a pee pad right in front of the back door, so that if he's feeling Outish and I'm not responding, he can go in a logical location, but he doesn't seem to think much of that. He'd rather use the living room carpet.

I ordered a PeeKeeper with rush delivery on it yesterday, and as soon as it comes, I'm going to put it on him and wash the rug in BioGreen Clean, which is supposed to take out the scent. I guess I'm also going to have to invest in things like baby powder, to keep him from getting a rash. I was hoping to keep the thing on him only during sleep periods, but clearly he can't be trusted not to pee on the rug, so he'll just have to wear it all the time. Ah, well. I advise you all to take stock in Depends or some such bladder control pad. The PeeKeeper uses them, and Naz will be driving up the value at the rate he is going! I'm going to have the PeeKeeper on him until he reliably goes only when he is Out.

Meanwhile, his appetite continues very healthy. I gave him a whole can of the gourmet dog food with some kibble in it yesterday, and then I put down some plain kibble, so that if he was still hungry, he would have something to eat that wouldn't be too rich. Just before bedtime, he did go over and eat it in the sulky fashion that means "All I get is *this*?"—what Chris calls a "kibble protest." But that means that he's got enough appetite to put some weight back on. I gave him some "Puppy Plate" this morning, and he seems to like that even better than the Working-Dog Stew. (I'd like chicken and turkey better than beef tripe myself, but then, I am not a woofus!)

I'll see how long the containment issue goes on, and if it's more than a month, I'll get him a Poochie Pants for his social functions. The PeeKeeper, while very likely effective, looks like an instrument of torture, and the Poochie Pants look like more the thing for political rallies and so on. I'm hoping it does resolve sooner than that, but I'm not gonna count on it. Dogs with otherwise normal bladders often get incontinent at his age, and I can't really count on him making a full recovery.

Are any of you getting bored yet with the blow-by-blow on Naz's health? I can always email you only for momentous events (e.g., visit to the oncologist next Wednesday). Just let me know.