Betty Girl

Betty Girl

In the past three years I have written 10 stories with the name Betty in them and yes, they have all been about our little white senior rescue pup who we got in 2020 from a place called Frosted Faces. I suspect, unfortunately, that this may be the last story I write about Betty. Betty seems to be in her end game today. She has not been eating her food, or most of it, for the past two weeks. She has also been stumbling a bit during her walks, at one point so badly that Kim thought she might have had a stroke or some such incident. Betty is generally slow moving these days. She spends a lot of time either sleeping or just staring out into space aimlessly. None of that is a good sign, and then today she jumped up on the bed as normal about 7:00am. It’s not unusual for Betty to catch a few Zs while Kim is getting dressed and before they go out for their morning walk and breakfast. But this morning, Betty did not get up at all, but instead chose to stay sleeping on the bed through the entire morning. In the early afternoon we were scheduled to go to the movies for a few hours. Kim and I both realize that the signs are building that Betty is preparing for her exit. We have discussed how Kim wants to handle it. What she does not want is to drop Betty off at the vet’s and have her spend her last moments anywhere but in the home she has come to know and love.

A little over three years ago, Kim picked out Betty from an array of pooches at a senior rescue center in Ramona. Betty was called Cheyenne and she was thirteen-year-old stray from East L.A. that was diabetic and had lost her sight accordingly. When we met her at the shelter she was not particularly friendly since she had been passed around from one shelter home to another and given her lack of sight, she tended to want to keep to herself rather than be subject to whatever the other dogs wanted. Nature can be harsh. She seemed to only care about getting something to eat and being left alone. I’m not sure why Kim chose to take on Betty, but she did, with all the needs that came with her. She needed insulin injections twice daily, which Kim learned how to do. As soon as we got her, Kim took her to the vet and it turned out she needed a lot of dental work, which we had done. Then, we worked with a dog eye clinic to give her a surgical solution to her blindness, which was a form of cataract procedure that left her with a modest ability to see and function much better than she had for a long time. She had already run into a few cacti on our property, so it was a big help to get that sorted out. It meant that for the rest of her life, she would need three different types of eyedrops several times a day. But Kim is nothing if not dedicated in her kindness to animals.

Then, just as we were ready to head out this afternoon, Betty woke up and rallied. She still wouldn’t eat much of her dinner and her walk around was more of a wander than a purposeful walk. She ate enough snacks that Kim was able to give her one of the two insulin shots she is supposed to have per day. But then it was back to sleep for Betty. I know that dogs are supposed to sleep a lot, but Betty has now managed to go well beyond a lot. What used to be 18 hours of sleep is creeping north of 20 hours per day.

We are ending the day sitting in the living room in front of the TV pretty much like we normally do, and Betty is on the floor right at our feet, just like always. At this moment, if I didn’t know what has been transpiring with Betty, I would assume that this was just another day like any other. But I think both Kim and I know better now that things are moving to a place where we need to examine Betty’s quality of life. So tomorrow, Kim will take Betty to the vet and get a full evaluation from which to develop our game plan.

I’m not sure how you make that sort of quality of life determination for a sixteen-year-old diabetic stray that has about three teeth in her head and only sort of knows what’s going on. Here is what I do know about Betty’s quality of life. After years of hardship on the streets and a series of foster and shelter homes with probably kibble being the best she would expect, Betty landed in clover. I am only partially talking about our house and the fact that she never has cause to get too cold or too hot and to always have a soft spot to sleep when she wants. And the fresh and natural food specifically prepared to her taste and ever-present bowls of cool water to drink are also just part of the deal. Betty has more medical specialists attending to her needs than I do and she takes more meds than I do. But it is the intangibles of the love and caring that Kim gives her that is truly her best fortune. Betty wakes Kim up about 6:30am when she comes up on the bed. She is always greeted warmly by Kim with the sweetest tone of voice you could imagine, no matter how tired Kim might be. Once Kim is up and dressed, she carries Betty like a Queen into the living room, passing by the full-length mirror for Kim to remind her that she is the prettiest girl in the world. Betty’s looks have never been her long suite. Kim then sits with Betty for a few minutes, showing her endless love and caring. Then its out for a nice long walk, taken at Betty’s pace and direction so she can catch up on all the neighborhood smells that intrigue her. Back in the kitchen, Kim brings out half the refrigerator to make Betty’s special breakfast with all the best of everything. Betty used to gobble it all up as fast as it was put down, but now she is as likely to sniff at it and sit a while longer with Kim in the kitchen until its time for her morning nap.

For our first year with Betty, we would take her with us on our trips here and there and she was a perfectly good roadtrip dog, but as time passed, Kim realized that it was better for Betty to just stay at home while we traveled. To care for her, Kim would fly her friend Natasha out for the week or two when we would be away. That meant that Betty had a caring dog sitter who would take her to the dog beach and out to parks along the coast for long walks and sits in the sun or shade as she wished. Kim’s criteria for her dog sitters are that they too have to treat Betty like a Queen, and Natasha does just that, with all the best food that Kim has stocked up as per Betty’s preferences.

I don’t know what the vet will say tomorrow when he looks Betty over. What do you say about an old dog covered in warts under her wispy white hair. Betty now weighs about 18 pounds, having come off the street at 8 pounds and given to us at 12 pounds. We are in no rush to see Betty leave, but by the same token, the best advice we have been given is that an aged and diabetic dog can be in more discomfort than we can always see. Sleeping away the day and not eating are pretty clear signs that we need to consider all options for Betty’s sake. We love Betty and want what’s best for her. As someone said to Kim today, Betty Girl has had a pretty sweet last chapter and we want that last page to be the best ending it can be.