"This is so you won't pee on me. One, two, three!"

Matilda is getting old.  The best estimates have her between 77 and 84 dog years old. (That's between 11 and 12 people years.)  In the past couple of years, we have started to battle incontinence.  It started with little dribble drops on the sofa while watching television.  Then we started have minor "oops" moments while settling in for the evening.  That's when the vet prescribed Proin drops to help her with bladder control.  At first it was a struggle getting her to take the drops.  Eventually we got into a good habit of taking the drops after going for a walk.  But the only way she would open her mouth for the drops is if I sing-songingly said, "This is so you won't pee on me.  One, two, three!"

Every now and again, I would go stretches without giving her the medicine and she would do well without it.  But then the dribbles would start again, so we would start back up with, "This is so you won't pee on me.  One, two, three!".

When the pharmaceutical company stopped manufacturing the drops we had a slight problem.  Matilda refused to take the tablets for quite awhile.  Once I figured out that she would eat anything that was covered in peanut butter, we were back on track.

We recently went through a very long successful stretch without the medicine, but incontinence came back with a vengeance.  This time, there were no dribbles or "oops".  This time, she emptied her bladder three times in one night, while she was sleeping...on my bed.  What's worse is that right before going to bed that night, I had decided to change my sheets.  After the third accident, I was praying that there would be no more because I had no more clean sheets.  During that same night, she woke me up three separate times and asked to go outside.  Two of the three times, she squatted for almost a minute.  The third time, we smelled the presence of a skunk, so she decided that she wouldn't handle her business at that time...which was 4:30 a.m.  But at 5:50 a.m., five minutes before my alarm clock sounded, I rolled over to find a guilty face staring back at me.  Yes, another wet spot in the bed.

We're back to medicinal peanut butter treats, but we're still having small incidents.

Matilda is getting old.  Sigh...