The awwws and ughs of Schnauzers

March 28, 2016 | My Jottings

If you’ve visited my blog much you know that we have two Miniature German Schnauzers. Edith Elaine Bubbleloo (Edith) and Mildred Virginia Sizzlelorum (Millie) are 14 and 10 years old, respectively. We are schmitten schnauzer folks without a doubt, and the small breed’s traits of affection, loyalty, cleanliness (no fur and no shedding) and devotion to their owners has won us over four times now, as Millie and Edith are our third and fourth foray into the schnauzery world of über vigilance and shrieky, high pitched barking.

There are so many awwww moments with these little girl doggies, like this one below. I took this photo with my iPhone a while back, of Millie stretched out on a plaid wingback chair in our living room, head resting on the arm, looking at me the whole time as if saying, “Do you have anything fun planned next?” I couldn’t resist putting it on Instagram as you see here, and calling Millie a doggie diva.

Awwww

Isn’t she just about the cutest thing you’ve ever seen? She had just been to The Bad Lady (their name for the groomer) and her beard was short and puppy looking.

A while later, I started following a superbly talented artist on Instagram who draws schnauzers. She randomly picks photos from her schnauzer owner IG followers and surprises them with a sketch of their dog. Yesterday I woke to find this on my instagram feed, her drawing of the photo above:

Awwww

What a likeness! It was such a great surprise and gift, and it made me say “awwwww” and then show it to anyone else I felt sure would also say, “awwwww.”

Now we’re moving onto the “ughs” of schnauzerdom. Edith, our 14 year old elderly lady schnauzer, has a huge, benign tumor in her left thigh. We’ve been to the vet and it has been biopsied so we know it’s not going to spread systemically. But it’s a lipoma that is infiltrating her leg muscles and her thigh is about three times the size it should be. She walks well albeit stiffly, and has to be very careful how she lays down since her leg won’t bend easily. I keep an eye on her for three things: lack of thirst, lack of appetite, and pain. So far, she hasn’t shown any of those, so we take it day by day. As hard as it will be when the time comes, I believe in her own way she is trusting me to make sure she doesn’t suffer more than she can bear, and to make the final decision for her. I can’t think about it much, really, or tears come. She has been such a patient, faithful doogins to our family and to her younger sister who came in and demanded to be Alpha when Edith was four years old and Millie was only six weeks.

Because Edith’s lipoma presses up against her urethra, she has to go potty outside a lot now. Gone are the days when we could let the dogs out morning, noon and night. Now it’s more like 5:15 a.m., 7:30, 10:00, noon, 2:00, 4:30, 6:30, 8:00 and then right before bed. No exaggeration. We have had an accident or four, and since I am more than a little OCD about my carpet, I try to stay on top of the task of letting the dogs out frequently. Even so, I’ve stepped in a few wet spots on the carpet before, so I decided to buy an inexpective black light flash light designed to help you find old urine stains in your carpet that aren’t showing up normally.

Well.

The light arrived recently and I waited until dark to walk around our living room and my bedroom to see if there were a few spots I’d missed. And I said to myself, “Oh. My. Gosh.” Because Edith’s urinary offerings don’t smell much and don’t discolor the carpet, I’ve missed a lot.

Here’s a photo I took this morning (black light photography is not my thing), and the very bright spot in the middle of the ring is part of a urine spot about the size of the palm of your hand. Take away the black light, and you can’t see one iota of the spot. Who knows how long this has been there?

Uggghhh

I found at least six stains on our living room carpet this way, and about ten in my bedroom with the deep, off-white shag carpet. I wearily groaned, “Uggghhhhhhh!” I’ve already learned that scrubbing and soaking and wicking and rescrubbing and rinsing doesn’t do much. I need an enzyme cleaner apparently, which was ordered about an hour ago.

Later this week I’ll be starting my first day at the University for Seniors, and I’m quite looking forward to that. And I’m also considering a huge lifestyle change that is making me cringe often enough that I may not have the courage for it. But at least I’m praying about it.

That’s always a good place to start.