His Dogness

In recent weeks, His Dogness has been getting up and wanting to go out four to six times a night.

That’s what was going on just before I took him to the vet’s some months back and discovered that his kidneys were failing him. The medication that the vet put him on was a big help, though, and, in the months that followed, we went back to just going out once, maybe twice a night, more if I let him eat late or eat something exotic.

When the numbers started going back up again, I fretted that meant that his kidneys were taking another step down. I put off going to the vet, though, because I thought the solution might be giving him a tranquilizer or something just so that I could get something resembling a night’s worth of sleep.

Then I had a brain wave.

His Dogness has never been a fan of summer heat. When he was younger, I used to make him take his full evening walk no matter what, though. I figured it was for his own good.

As he has gotten older, I have let him abbreviate the walk somewhat in the heat. And, this year, with all the troubles that he has been having, I thought I was doing him a favor to let him sometimes skip the walk to Old Salem and, instead, take a modest stroll down the alley behind the house instead.

He did seem to appreciate it at the time.

Only later, though, did my brain notice that the time we stopped taking real walks every day was about the time he had to start going out more at night. Say, I thought, maybe there’s connection.

As soon as I went back to taking him on a real walk in Old Salem every day, he went back to just needing to go out once or so.

I wish the solution to every problem was so simple.