Not more laundry...??

Charly has never been much of a marker on walks.  In her first year of life, she and I had a war over whose papasan chair it really was that occupied our apartment’s little sun room.  She reinforced her strong opinion by marking that chair…each time after I called “Paul” the furniture cleaner to clean it.  But, otherwise she has never peed in the house.  About two years ago, I thought she was again engaging in a war – this time over her beds.  There was pee in them, and we would wash them, and then there would be more pee again.  Did she not like the scent of the detergent?  Was she upset that we had moved or temporarily took her bed(s)?  No.  Charly was incontinent during sleep.  Our shoulders sagged with the thought of doing more laundry…especially dog-pee-laundry.  How many more loads could we possibly do in a week?  

Thankfully, there is a liquid oral medication that assists (mostly) with preventing the incontinence.  But, about twice a week (mostly on days when no one can be home to cover the lunchtime walk), Charly’s bladder will empty in her bed.  She dislikes it as much as we do, and will look at us in earnest and paw near the offending area.  She refuses to lay in a soiled bed.  So, we bought a handful of really fluffy waterproof dog blankets – she loves to sleep on this fluff and it keeps the accidents focused in one area.  And, it turns out that we can do more laundry than we thought we could!  Our time has stretched because it had to – Charly is old, and so is her body.  And now, this extra laundry is just part of our family’s life.