I know I have written several entries about Sprite, our “puppy” of fourteen years. (Actually, I think I may have written that she is fifteen, but I was wrong… She’s “only” fourteen.) Poor little Sprite is on medication for arthritis, and several other infirmities. She has recently started staking out her place on our sofa in the television room now that I have moved my computer downstairs so that I don’t have to continuously carry her up and down.
It seems like the last few months she has gotten even more tired than before. She is perfectly content to just laze -around on the sofa, not even worried about following me into my computer room. Every once in a while I see her opening her eyes and peering out to make sure I am still downstairs, but she doesn’t seem totally content on the guest bed… as we had hoped she would be. She definitely prefers her little area on the sofa. She’s a dog of habits, and she “knows” the sofa. She’s not as crazy about the bed.
Anyway, she has gotten to a point where our backyard patio is a problem. Our patio has a drop of about eighteen inches. A few months ago, we noticed that Sprite would sometimes stumble and hit her chest and jaw after jumping to the grass. She absolutely refuses to use the deck’s step, insisting that her jumping-off location remain the same as she has always used.
We had a dilemma… We were afraid that she was going to hurt herself when she jumped off the deck. It was rare that she would stumble, but all it takes is that one time. We started thinking that we would have to build a ramp of some sort so that she could walk down to the grass. The ramp was going to have to be built in the same location that she insists is her jumping-off spot.
My son and I went over to some of the home improvement/building stores to see what we could come up with. We would have to build the ramp, somehow attach it, make sure it was sanded so that Sprite wouldn’t hurt herself, ETC!!! Yikes!
In the meantime, I decided to see what I could find at the local pet stores. We had tried getting Sprite little steps, but those failed miserably. She simply refused to use them… even with us tugging at her collar and trying to coax her with Pupperonies.
And then it came to me… What about those dog ramps that dogs use to get in and out of cars. Anyway, the long and short of it is that Sprite loves using her ramp to go down to the grass. (However, being our lovable and stubborn Sprite, she refuses to come up the ramp. Where’s the Dog Whisperer when you need him?!?)
