Gracie.

I must say we've been blessed with wonderful furkids.  I've rarely had a problem with any of my dogs....the worst has been my old lady Gracie and her incessant barking, which has never let up since she was a young dog.  She likes to tell us everything that is happening, and make her presence known.  To everyone.  All the time.  


Gracie is half collie, half black lab and is a strikingly beautiful animal.  She came to us by way of a student of mine in 1996 at the age of 6 weeks.  By 8 weeks old we knew she'd be a handful and by 10 weeks, we realized we'd be taking our first dog to puppy school.  Gracie is an alpha dog, and not a very good one, but alpha nonetheless.  So we had to get some of her assertive behaviors under control, teach her acceptable behavior around our other two dogs at the time (Gus and Shadow) and we had to open our own minds to "learning dog."

Gracie is very intelligent and learned quickly.  She also was smart enough to look at us like we were nuts when we asked her to do something repeatedly.  It was like she was saying, "...duh, did you guys not see me do that the first time?  How many times must I sit and stay, already?"  Gracie is a mix of two working breeds, so we needed to get her a job, to stimulate her mind and deal with her energy.  We introduced her to agility and she was a natural.  Learned instantly, was very fast, but unfortunately got bored easily.  (again, did we not see her do that once already?)  She wasn't fond of other dogs, either.  She's always been a bit of a lone wolf, so to speak.  


However, Gracie loved to run.  Like the wind.  We'd take her to the school a few blocks from our house and let her go inside the fenced area.  She'd just take off, alone, and run like crazy.  We'd watch in amazement and sometimes have to corral her, to make sure she wouldn't bolt out of one of the gates.  Eventually Ernie began taking her on his runs and they'd easily put in six miles.  You know who came back exhausted and it wasn't the dog!  Gracie was then, and still is, an amazing animal.  


Sadly, Gracie is losing the use of her legs.  We've seen it slowly coming on these past few years, but the last few weeks her decline has accelerated exponentially.  We've done all we know that we can - provided supplements, fed her homemade and holistic foods, kept her on pain medication and other meds to combat her arthritis.  Exercised her and kept her weight down.  Visited the vet, used laser treatments and acupuncture.  But now it seems her age and her high-test personality are going to get the better of her.  Which is awful, because she is alert, eats relatively well and wants to be included in our activities.  She sees and hears well, still.  

Gracie is a Daddy's girl and I know Ernie is struggling mightily with the inevitable.  To watch his beloved running buddy lose her legs, of all things, is heart wrenching.  We plan to help her in any way we can until she is ready to leave her body.  We don't know what that means, exactly, but we adopted her for the long haul.  Right now, she insists on doing as much without assistance as possible.  She's not ready to say goodbye yet, and neither are we.