Day 76 POTD More animals & Doggy Dementia

It's too tough for poor Bonnie to bear the all burden of the whole week of being The Animal, so I headed off to the local pet shop for a bunny, a ferret in a hammock, and a guinea pig. But since it still is Animal Week (and by the way, my first day with my DH was going to see Animal House), I'll tell you about Bonnie's doggy dementia.

First the photos, all shot with my 18-135 mm lens, ISO 400, fluorescent wb; autofocus.




The way we figured out that Bonnie, 13 1/2, has doggy dementia is that at night, she started guarding us against hallucinations. All night long, she stand at the top of the steps, barking her little cute fool head off, at absolutely nothing! Apparently barking is dog-to-human communication, and boy did she ever communicate! She was killing us! We'd be woken up all night long, and in the morning when we'd head off to work, she headed off to her cozy little bed to sleep the day away.

The vet tried amytriptylene, but it didn't do much good. Finally, we decided we had to have her sleep in a bed in the laundry room, where she wouldn't hear outside sounds as much. I hope this doesn't offend anyone's faith beliefs, but we put a radio outside the laundry room, tuned it in to an all-night radio station that plays the rosary in a fairly monotonous, but soothing, set of voices, all night long. Problem solved! Bonnie is much less anxious, doesn't bark at night, we sleep. . . and she still sleeps all day while we're at work.

Oh, and someone asked about the background for the jungle animals yesterday. I happen to have a blanket that has jungley looking things in it, like toucans and tropical trees, and I thought it would work well to cover the couch in the background.