[ErniesDad]

AMother’s Unconditional Love…….for Her Yorkie Son “Ernie”

I want to tell you about my wife Anna’s care of our agingYorkshire Terrier Ernie. But first, you must understand that Ernie was MYdog. He loved his Daddy. If I was in the pool he was a nervous wreck, following me around the pool deck wherever I swam, barking the whole time. My wife and kids would feign drowning, but his eyes were always locked on me. I was the guy who walked him and roughhoused with him and he loved it.

About a year and a half ago our 15 year old Ernie, had a 2:00 AM “episode” where he jumped off our bed and was running, crying and shooting his rear right leg straight back as he ran. This went on for about two hours and we initially thought it might be a skeletal issue, like when Yorkie knees go out of socket. My wife Anna and my daughter Jennifer were able to soothe him to sleep and when he got up in the morning he seemed OK.

That morning, we called the vet, explained what happened and she asked us how he was doing now. We said he seemed OK and she advised us to just watch him and let her know if it happens again. Over the next six months we noticed Ernie was losing his hearing and eyesight and was beginning to show signs of cognitive dysfunction. Nothing unusual for a 16year old dog we thought. He would walk in a circle from kitchen to dining room, living room, hallway and back to the kitchen. He could do this for hours, if we let him.

About 6 months ago, he had another “episode” of running and kicking his leg backwards, and the vet then told us that the first episode may have been some type of brain injury. We had Ernie checked; blood, urine, skeletal and heart. Everything seemed OK.

Fast forward a few months. Ernie could no longer jump off our bed and our bed was the ONLY place he would sleep. If he awoke from sleep and sat up he would shake his head and jingled his tags. When we heard this, we hadabout 5 seconds to get him off the bed and onto a pee pad or he wet his blankets. He awoke on average three times a night. I got pretty good at crawling on my hands and knees and moving the pee pad to wherever he was circling until he decided to go. He still ate and drank normally, but lost his ability to go outside to do his business. Whereas before he circled through three rooms, he now circled in tight 2 foot circles.

Here is how my wife Anna and the rest of the family cared for our aging son/brother. We blocked the top of the stairs with a 6 inch high plank so that Ernie would not fall down the stairs. Everyone in the family got use to stepping over the plank to go upstairs or downstairs. We would never leave Ernie alone. One of us always had to be home with him. Our daughter Jennifer or son Michael would sometimes come over to give us a break and babysit Ernie.The peeing on the bed? No problem. Anna bought a waterproof mattress pad. Ernie loved to sleep cuddled in this one bedspread, but with the peeing issue, that was a problem. Anna cut the bedspread in half. She would bunch it up and place him comfortably on it. The other half of the bedspread was always washed and ready in case he had an accident. During the day, as he slept, she covered the bed with pee pads in case we did not hear him awake. Before she came up with this solution, she would sometimes be washing the bedding two or three times a day. With this solution, she would need to wash the bedding maybe once every other day. Since his eyesight was poor and he could no longer get off the bed himself, but sometimes fell off, she surrounded the bed with throw pillows and blankets so that if he fell off he would not be hurt. When he would wake up during the night, his routine was pee, drink some water and get put back on the bed and go to sleep. Other times, he would begin howling and circling on the bed refusing to lie down. My wife would interpret this as “he is hungry”, so at 3:30 in the morning she would be in the kitchen warming up chicken in the microwave or frying a cheese steak. She would sit on the floor in the bedroom, and hand feed him and then put him back to bed. Ernie would then sleep.

We asked our new vet if there was something we could give him for his restlessness/pacing and he said we could tryXanex. At first this seemed to work, but not really. We then tried Valium with much the same result, so we stopped giving Ernie either of these. We then tried Anypril, which based on our reading, may have helped him when the original episode occurred, but at this stage it did not.

On April 6, 2014, Ernie had his worst episode. It was our son Alan’s 39th birthday so the whole family was over and we heard howling from the bedroom. Ernie was crying out in pain, howling and kicking that right rear leg out again. He was inconsolable. Once again, I don’t know how she did it but after acouple of hours Anna got him to sleep. He awoke again at 2:00 AM with the same symptoms. Anna and our daughter Jennifer consoled him and eventually fed him a meatball from our son’s favorite birthday dinner! He went to sleep! At 6:00 AM he awoke and we knew it wast ime. We called the vet and asked if he could see Ernie and put him down, as he could no longer live like this.


The vet was so loving and understanding of the significance of our decision. He took Ernie and inserted an IV for the sedative and the final shot and brought him to us wrapped in a rose colored blanket. We each got to hold him and get a last kiss. The vet told us to take as much time as we needed. When we were ready, he asked us if we wanted him to take Ernie in the back to administer the final shot. Anna insisted on holding him as it was administered. Ernie went to sleep and we all cried, just as I am crying as I write this. Ernie’s life was a full 16 years 7 months long.

I always knew I had a wonderful, loving wife, but after seeing her tirelessly and patiently caring for our frail, aging Ernie all these months, I love and respect her more than ever.

Me and Ernie ….. two very lucky guys.

Ernie’s Dad