The Narrowing Path

Just as our hiking trail is being overrun and narrowed by mustard, I feel a narrowing of the path that Mabel and I share. Her age is most certainly slowing her down... and scaring this dog mom.

After bringing the coyote skull from my previous post - brain still inside - to me last week, two days later she had a really strange bout of "technicolor diarrhea" for a day and a half. This is after discovering her weight drop. I was working and not home with her and really scared. Once I finally figured out she really did not want the homemade chicken soup and did want some kibble, she was eating again.

Do you see the baby hawk?

But, the past few days, I started to feel she was looking even thinner. When a friend at the creek noticed, I decided to take her for pancakes at her favorite restaurant. And since we were driving by the vet's, I took her in for a weight check. She's dropped another 2.3 pounds in two weeks... all while eating MORE food.

Yet her appetite is excellent... she ate all but a few bites of the eggs I hate, more than half of my pancakes and most of my bacon. And, I fed her  some kibble and some high calorie supplement as "breakfast #2" yesterday... she ate every drop and supper too. And she still ADORES going to the creek. The walk that used to take us an hour now takes an hour and a half. I let her set the pace. If she wants to stay in one spot and hunt lizards, we do. And when we get to the 2nd swimmie  hole, she often takes the trail back toward the car.

So while I wait over this long weekend to see what the next steps are, I'm just beyond frightened. Unexplained weight loss is never good.... so if you would say a prayer for Mabel Lou, I would be most grateful.

Mabel - meditating on the sunset Saturday night.