Cheating Time

Memphis is getting old and it’s a matter of time before he starts shutting down. He’s got some hip problems, some back problems, some diet problems, some hearing problems. But he’s still here and still ticking over day after day. This past week he had some digestive problems, and we pulled him off some of his medications for 72 hours or so. One of his meds was a tranquilizer, which he was put on after he started to wonder off and bark at nothing in a corner. Diagnosed with some form of anxiety or some general mental disturbance (not unlikely), a mild daily downer was added to the regimen. Over the last couple of months, his slide continued. His rear sagged more and more, he heard less and less, he slept more and more. It seemed that his time was coming sooner rather than later, and that it might not be too much longer before he lost the will to keep going for another day. But in the absence of his meds, Memphis has started to come back a little. Not physically, in that department he’s still 13 years (94 dog years) old. But mentally he’s a little sharper. More “with” it. A bit more energy. He leans a little more to the dog side of “old dog”. We’ve made the decision to pull his tranquilizers for the time being, and see if he maintains his current improvement. If he doesn’t then we may start him again. But for the time being, he’ll be off of them and we’ll have a little bit more of Memphis back. Eventually time will win, but I feel we’ve scored a little victory.