About Jake

SUMMARY: Jake's behavior and health.

1. OK, WHY WHY WHY has he started standing at the doggie door and barking for me to let him in or out? What did I do to deserve this? He seems to be fine going through when it's important to do so. Is he not getting enough attention otherwise and this is his trick? Arggghhhh it's driving me nuts!

2. I'm so glad that the plums are gone. ("But why are the plums gone?") No more 1 a.m. excursions. No more rinsing diarrhea off the big fluffy petticoat fur. Does he just eat more plums than the other dogs? Or does he just react differently to them?

3. I took him in to the vet because his eyes started looking odd to me. Almost like they were a little swollen or extra-moist or something, not sure how to identify it. Looking closely, I could see obvious misting in his pupils. But that wasn't it, either. The vet looked and said, yup, sure enough, see that shading in the cornea? (Had to look sideways with a sideways light.) Sort of half-moon shaped coming in from the outside. He said I caught it at just about the earliest that it could be caught. But, of course, there are several things that it could be. One is inflammation between the layers of the cornea, in which case the basic steroid eye ointment applied regularly over a period of few weeks usually makes it go away, although it often comes back and has to be treated repeatedly. But nothing too serious. Apparently it's very common in German Shepherds, although it can occur in any breed. I'd never thought that Jake had Shepherd in him, but who knows.

OR it could be the beginnings of separation of the layers. In which case hitting it with the eye cream would be very bad for it if kept up. So I have to keep an eye on his eyes, watching whether the shadowing gets better or whether he starts squinting or blinking or acting like his eye is bothering him in any way at all.

4. He hardly ever sleeps all night on the bed any more. I don't know where this comes from, either. He'll get on the bed at bed time, nest around, settle for a short while, and then after I turn off the light, he leaps down and sleeps on the floor in near the far corner of the bed.

5. It is SO odd not to be able to wake him up sometimes. Yell his name, shake him, no reaction. Eventually something gets through to him. Weird weird weird.