Good News

On October 27th I received news I knew would come but dreaded. My beautiful, goofy, affectionate, snugglemonster of a hound had suffered another bout of her recurring illness.

Watching Jerz get sick leaves me stricken- her head and tail droop, she starts at any noise, forgets everything, loses her housetraining, falls on the stairs, and sometimes goes blind. She paces constantly, can't get comfortable, and strikes her paws at imagined phantoms circling her head. She eats pens, cardboard boxes, and sometimes nibbles a misplaced hand. She is lost in a dark, unfamiliar, twisted place

The first sign that she has turned the corner is when she first wags her tail.

This morning in beijing I got a text from her wonderful caregiver Wendy.

"Brought her (Jersey) over to my friend's house this evening for dinner. They have a 7 year old daughter and a 3 year old son. Jerz loved the kids! Wagged her tail, gave them her paw and smiled her doggie smile. I haven't seen her that happy in a month! I'm hoping she has turned the corner and doesn't look back!"

Its fitting that children brought Jerz back from her dark place. She has always had the pit bull love of babies. I was alarmed initially when she tried to drag me over to anything under 4 and a half feet tall but quickly learned that she just adores being mauled by kids. She was ogling a baby in a stroller once when the child took a piece of muffin in her fingers and shoved her whole hand in Jerz's mouth. Her horrified mother shrieked but Jerz just sat there with her mouth open as the toddler explored the inside of Jerz's maw with a hand full of food.

This is the 4th incident and while I know eventually she won't come back from that dark confused place I'm glad its not this time...