Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Fall 2011 Doggie Update

Aloha everyone! I'd like to share a recent photo of Tasha and Danzig taken this month. We can't believe Tasha celebrated her 15th birthday on July 6, 2011. What is that in dog years? 105?

In my last post I shared that Tasha and Danzig are showing signs of their age, and that Danzig has cancer. Even without a terminal illness, Tasha is the serious one. She worries about everything. When she's been bad she'll stress out about it like crazy, and when she hasn't, she worries and has a guilty conscience over the last time she did something, even if it's ancient history. Her mission in life is to please everyone around her. She is incredibly sweet and we love her so much. Unfortunately we can tell she is aging faster than Danzig. Even though she doesn't have cancer, she may not outlast him. With her advanced age, she's had some problems controlling her bladder and the poor thing thinks it's her fault and worries about making a mess, so she prefers to stay outside.
At the same time, Danzig has demonstrated that attitude is everything. On January 5, 2011 the vet's biopsy predicted he had 2 months to live, 6 at the most. However, since he doesn't know his condition, and therefore doesn't dwell on it, he has the most inspiring attitude towards life. Because he couldn't eat dry food following his throat surgery and tumor removal, we switched him to canned. He thought he won the doggie lottery! Basically everything makes him happy. Everything rules in Danzig's world. I took a quick video of him at feeding time to show how excited he is for his food. I apologize for the dark lighting, it was very, very early in the morning. Up for anything, all of the time! We can all learn a lesson from Danzig and his outlook on life.


Maybe it's better for our health and sanity to not worry so much about pleasing others and squeeze every bit of joy out of life that we can.


We continue to monitor their quality of life and are doing everything possible to make them comfortable. Ever since we met them at the animal shelter over a decade ago, they have been grateful, loving and loyal family members. Providing them with retirement in Hawaii has been the least we could do.