My absolute favourite Shakespeare quote is from Midsummer Night's Dream.....
"Though she be but little, she is fierce"
.... not least because it perfectly describes our beloved Small Dog. She may be tiny, but she has the heart of a lion.
The past few months have been very difficult for her. At the age of 14 years and 9 months, according to this dog breed age calculator she is
On a good day she is a sprightly senior citizen and will proceed carefully up the garden to patrol the perimeter, as she has done ever since she was a tiny puppy. She will sometimes enjoy a short stroll along the seafront, if it isn't too cold. Or windy. Or wet. Increasingly though, she is content to snooze on her blankets on the sofa, occasionally sitting upright to watch for any movement out on the patio which might reveal the presence of a squirrel or bird.
She is now rather frail... last year she was losing weight, and although she has regained some, when we carefully pick her up it is still noticeable. She has no useful vision in one eye, and limited sight in the other. She is mostly deaf.
Back in November she suddenly developed an abscess on her face, under her left eye. It burst and she was in obvious discomfort and distress. We suspected one of her few remaining teeth was the culprit, which was confirmed by the vet. Due to her age, any procedures requiring general anaesthesia are out of the question, so apparently the offending tooth cannot be removed.
Due to the coronavirus protocols, we were unable to accompany her into the building and waited anxiously in the car for what seemed like an age, worrying about what was happening to her. She was given several injections... a long-lasting antibiotic to combat the infection, an anti-emetic and an anti-inflammatory painkiller. We brought her home and for three days she slept and slept, waking only briefly to walk unsteadily into the garden for her ablutions, then quickly back indoors for a drink of water and back to her little bed. During that time we tried to prepare ourselves for an unhappy outcome. Her little body was fighting the infection, but she had lost 2 kilos and seemed to be so fragile and delicate.
After the third day, she asked for food and wanted to spend some time in the garden so we were cautiously optimistic that she'd turned the corner and was on the road to recovery. Her appetite returned and she began to regain weight. She resumed her duties as garden guardian and regulated our days with requests for food, informed us when it was time to light the fire and even, on a few occasions, wanted to play the game of chase.
However, on New Year's Eve, we noticed that she had another abscess in the same place as the first. She became very sick and couldn't keep any food down. Next morning, the abscess had burst but our vet was closed and we couldn't get an appointment till Saturday, on the emergency list.
Again we waited in the car, while a young vet came and collected her, listened to our update, then disappeared inside with a reluctant Small Dog. His first words when he returned, without SD, was that he didn't realise she would try to bite him.
Incredulously, I said that she was in pain and scared. With supreme and uncharacteristic restraint, I refrained from adding that if he'd tried to examine and clean my painful abscess I'd have bitten him too. Not to mention he's a vet and should know that animals, when they're in pain and distress can bite. Plus she's a tiny, elderly Yorkie with only 6 teeth and he's a grown adult male who's had 7 years of veterinary training in handling animals so should just Man Up!
Thankfully PP took over before I blew a gasket. He wanted us to give her antibiotics in her food, but as she isn't eating that's not a viable option. Not to mention if she did eat she'd just throw up. So he agreed to give the long-lasting antibiotic injection, along with an anti-emetic. However we have to give her oral painkillers (Metacam) in her food.
When he brought her back out we were dismayed to see her face. The abscess, which had been oozing, had been cleaned out, leaving a huge hole, almost down to the bone. Her poor, pretty little face.... it looks so very painful. He said he couldn't put a stitch in it because it had to drain, which is fair enough, but there is no way he could suture without anaesthesia, which he said was impossible for such an elderly dog. Mixed messages.
Anyway, she's safely home and back to sleeping continuously while the antibiotics kick in. She did perk up for a short while yesterday evening, and ate some lightly scrambled egg with very finely chopped ham and a slight grating of cheese, which she loves. I surreptitiously added the painkiller drops and watched to see if she would eat.... she's an expert at detecting medication concealed in food. She sniffed it suspiciously, and gave me a look which clearly said "Ai kno therr is meddisin in this" but thankfully she did eat it all and more importantly, wasn't sick afterwards so she had a hefty dose of anti-inflammatory painkillers on board.
She hasn't eaten anything today though, but as she's sleeping so peacefully and deeply, and looks so comfortable, we don't want to disturb her and hope that she might feel hungry later.
She's not out of the woods yet, and this may be a recurring issue that worsens over time. But she is a little fighter and clearly has no intention of going gently into that good night. She is such an amazing little dog and we love her so much. We simply can't envision our lives without her and are cherishing every single day we have left with our fiercely spirited little girl.
