Wheely Thready Daze Ahead: Travels with Millie

Millie just after we left home on October 19th.

Back 14 years ago as we contemplated getting a dog for our young daughter, we discussed the likelihood that the dog would be part of our household long after our nest was empty. So here we are -- nest is empty, husband newly retired and our 14 year old "pound puppy" has been on the road with us since October 19th. During most of her life, Millie has enjoyed time at her favorite kennel whenever we have been off on vacation. The "doggie hotel" was her happy home away from home. This time the journey was going to last too long to leave her behind and pay for care. Millie has always been a very active dog and noise and people excited her quite a bit, car rides and travel were over-stimulating. Over the past year she has become completely deaf and I think she enjoys the peace & quiet. Deafness has made her life much calmer.

For the most part Millie has been an easy travel companion. At her age she is pretty content to sleep most of the day and walks do not need to be long to provide enough exercise.

Millie's seat in the pick-up. The "S-biner" clip upper
left has been handy for hooking leash
while not in use on the road.

We have a board covered in carpet the width and depth of the backseat of our crew cab pickup truck. Her bed rides on the board and she even sleeps and waits contentedly in the cab when we make short stops. For longer stops we leave her in the camper. Her bed is in the cozy space under our table. Along about Sedona she discovered there was a nice view of the outside world if she climbed up on top of the table. We came back from one bike ride to find her sleeping up there! We cured that issue by pulling the blinds when we left her. So a couple weeks ago she came up with a bigger stunt! While at Organ Pipe Cactus Nat'l Monument we thought it would be a nice evening to grill a couple pork chops. I was thawing them in the sink on the freezer paper they had been wrapped in. There must have been an inch of that paper just within a standing Millie's reach, because when we returned from a little hike there was no pork chops, no freezer paper, and no plastic wrap that had been between the chops. She didn't even ask for her next two meals. Talk about being in the dog house.

Millie's goblin dog.

In an early post I shared Millie's adventure at Goblin Valley with her very own dog goblin that got her all excited. She met a barrel cactus in the desert which prompted a similar reaction... for some reason an 18" spikey ball inspired fear and anger.

Fresh out of the doggie beauty salon.

The state park we stayed at in Tucson was conveniently located near a large mall. Millie had a trip to the Petco store for a bath & brush. Millie never enjoys being bathed but it seemed necessary as we would have a passenger for the trip from Tucson, plus meeting the relatives for the holiday. The groomer was somewhat unhappy with me that I had failed to warn her that Millie had had a skunk encounter in recent months. Apparently the odor was very strong once she was wet. The skunk spray happened in our yard at home in September at five in the morning. Pets do keep life interesting!

We came to Dan's mother's in Lake Havasu for Thanksgiving. His sister and his niece were here with family and family dog. Naloo is a young beautiful chocolate lab. The two dogs circled each other the first evening but then settled in to tolerating each other just fine.

Millie & Naloo, Millie's head at beginning of tilt.

Both were eternally optimistic with all of the yummy food smells of the Thanksgiving feast. Naloo and family headed home to California in the evening of Thanksgiving day. By that time we had noticed Millie walking funny. She seemed to be staggering some and her head was tilted. She got much worse overnight and I was sure by morning we were going to have to find a vet to put her down. I had no idea how much this dog means to me. I couldn't stop crying and yet I knew we would not and could not spend any crazy amounts of money on veterinary care.

Millie is not a cuddly dog but she stayed close to me all night and through the morning. We called my daughter so she could tell Millie goodbye on the phone. At 11 we took Millie to a vet recommended by a close friend of Mom's. It turns out there is a common canine thing called Peripheral Vestibular Syndrome. Basically she was feeling like she was whirling on a very fast merry-go-round that would not stop.

The good news is almost all dogs recover from it in a few days. Millie's case was severe enough that they kept her at the animal hospital to a couple nights. By Sunday morning they were ready to send her home.

Recuperating on back patio with the grandma.

She was still very unsteady and they said the head tilt may last several weeks. When she had been home for over 24 hours and not eaten I was getting worried, they had told me she was eating "like a pig" at the hospital. It turns out they were feeding her canned food which we could come buy from them or they suggested I cook chicken, rice and possibly eggs for her. Yep, that worked she does eat that stuff (like a pig!).

Here is the old girl today. She seems to be doing pretty good.

We extended our stay at Mom's a few days but we will be heading north on tomorrow morning. Being liftied up and down to truck and camper may not be very comfortable, I think Millie's world is still spinning some. Hopefully she will continue to improve. I will finish this post with a few other random Millie pics from our journey.

jean