Cinna the SFWA

[jjean]

(Senior Female With Attitude)
Cinna will be 14 years old this year. She's been on thyroid medicine since she was 6. She seems to be quite active for her age. She spends her time going on adventures in the hay fields, looking for small furry creatures to kill or -her winter time favorite- sneaking into the horse barn to eat poop. Other than that she sleeps. If she gets a good start, she can still jump in our bed but sometimes she just lays her head on the bed and waits for me to help he in. (Same when getting into the truck.) We can't leave her alone in the house for more than 3-4 hours or she may leave us a present in the living room. She wakes me up at least one a night to let her out. She still is dominate over the rest of the pack but hasn't tried to kill Bo in over a year.

Recently Cinna has gotten into a destructive mood. Stuffed toys are getting to be no longer safe. When she was young she would tear up stuffed toys until she found the squeaky. After a dozen or so toy disembowelment, she realized they all had the same things in them and she stopped. Now she is at it again. In the past few months she has completely destroyed at least 6 toys, including Max's favorite cat toy, and damaged a dozen more.

Could this be a behavior problem or a health problem?

[RuffMuttK9z]

I wish I could have stuffed toys at all. Wow, that would be so much cheaper. I say you're lucky that you've been able to have them for this long.

[starfish]

Could this be a behavior problem or a health problem?

If it is, then all of my dogs are either nuts or sick! (the jury is still out on Skittles, btw )

Maybe this is simply Cinna's version of "wearing purple." If she is eating well and seems otherwise healthy, I wouldn't try and read too much into the behavior. If I'm lucky enough to have my dogs when they are 14, they will be allowed to destroy any toy they want to. Well, they do that now anyway, but you know what I mean.

Warning
by Jenny Joseph

WHEN I AM AN OLD WOMAN I SHALL WEAR PURPLE
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

[jjean]

Thanks. I guess I just need to put a purple scarf on her and quit worring.

[joe]

Jean jsut so you know the only stuffed toys here are very cheap and last 10 minutes, Roc considers anything stuffed a personal challenge and has to kill it.