Janauary 5, 2019

White Dog nodded her head giving permission as Bella and Opal sat watching Nilla taking her medications. Every morning and evening the two girls supervise Nilla's care as we apply her eye ointment, skin balm, and give her the two pills she takes twice daily. At night our girl also gets her injection for the staph infection.

Her pills come covered in whipped cream cheese, more favorite than liver sausage or peanut butter or hot dogs. The light whipped cheese is easy for her to lap off of Steve's fingers and is not too much for her to swallow down.

Tonight when Steve opened the new package, he groaned. He had picked up regular heavier thicker cream cheese and not the whipped. He put it around her pills hoping that Nilla would not mind the difference but it was just a bit too much around the pill. She left a morsel behind.

Bella sat as always. With WD's permission Steve bent down and offered the remainder to Bella. And when the same thing happened with the second pill, Opal got her opportunity. Both were polite and grateful; neither abandoned their watch of Nilla's care. Both nuzzled their "thanks" when she was out of my arms and lying on her bed.

Tomorrow Steve will stop and pick up the whipped variety so our girl is more comfortable. Her failing eyesight and dementia make changes in routine hard for her and we do not want to complicate her life.

As for Bella and Opal, it is like White Dog said, "they are both there for her every time so a little reward is OK. It is not like they are there EXPECTING something, it was just a bonus."