Our dog Sandy lived the first 7 1/2 years of her life without stairs. The only steps she saw in my Durham house were short ones to go up on the backyard deck.
That all changed when my wife, Sandy, and I moved into our Cary home in April 2007. There were steps to get out of the house in the front, back, and garage. And there was a big staircase leading to the bedrooms upstairs, including Sandy’s. She initially was afraid of the big staircase, but soon had no trouble going up and down it.
Sandy was diagnosed with arthritis in fall 2010, but she had no trouble getting up and down the stairs. Usually, if we were upstairs, that’s where she wanted to be, or if we were downstairs, she’d want to be there. She always wanted to come upstairs at night and down in the morning for her walk. Sometimes we’d put the gate up downstairs when we left her for the day, but she figured out how to go through the swinging door in the dining room and end up upstairs. During thunderstorms, she always wanted to go upstairs for the safety of our bedroom closet.
Before we left Sandy at the veterinarian for our Christmas trip, we noticed her hobbling around. In the past, she has pulled a leg muscle a couple of times. We thought it might be that, or her arthritis getting worse. But the doctor said she tore her ACL and needed surgery. Her surgery will be this week.
So now Sandy’s a downstairs dog. We’ve gated off the staircase. The first few nights she cried about being left downstairs alone. She still doesn’t like it, but she’s gotten used to it. She has a ramp now for the backyard steps. We used to go out the front door for our walks, so she’s adjusting to that, too.
Sandy has always been an energetic dog, and some of that energy is still there. She still loves her walks, but just can’t go as far. She’s sleeping a lot more. And she’ll never make it upstairs again.
