November 7, 2024, 12:00 pm | Read time: 8 minutes

At 20 years old, PETBOOK author Manuela Lieflaender’s Miniature Spitz is almost a Methuselah. She is often envied by other dog owners and asked how she has managed to keep Samy reasonably fit. But life with the senior dog is also stressful.

But that was far from the worst part. By the evening, Samy was already making loud, gurgling noises in his tummy. He barked again and again. Relaxing on the sofa was simply out of the question. Each time, I jumped up again, sat next to him, and stroked him. Yet he continued to bark, prompting me to shuttle back and forth between the living room and the garden.

Samy barks a lot

It was a stressful evening. Since Samy is no longer walking so well, he barks a lot. This can stem from various causes in older dogs, such as arthritis, anxiety, dementia, heart failure, pancreatic disease, or even sensitivity to cold or heat. There are many reasons, and it is not always possible to find out what the cause is.

One thing I know for sure: Mr. Kleinspitz does not have dementia. No, the senior usually knows exactly what he wants and that his mistress jumps as soon as he makes a noise. At 2 a.m. that night, I just hoped he didn’t get diarrhea, as he has so often done recently, because watery bowel movements are often the beginning of the end for old animals.

The thing with the yoga mat

But the dog simply stands before me in the garden as if to say, “It’s raining. You can carry me back to the bedroom.” Once there, sleep is still out of the question. Instead, thoughts pop into my head like: “What if I haven’t been outside long enough, and he might have to go?”

What might sound like paranoia was, in fact, reality just the day before: I had just taken Samy for a walk, and a little later, he had a poo on his “yoga mat.” Yes, you heard that correctly. If you’ve never lived with an old dog, you’ll be fascinated by Samy’s realm. He has a separate area in his bedroom with four different places to lie down and the aforementioned yoga mat, on which his bowls are placed because it is reasonably non-slip. Samy musters a great deal of strength to stay on his feet while eating. They are constantly slipping sideways.

Jumping from the brink of death

This is also the reason why Samy’s area is partitioned off, and we have to play Tetris with his resting places: If even one paw reaches the laminate floor, the little Spitz slips away. He can then no longer free himself under his own power and panics. This can quickly end fatally, as the senior has severe heart problems. Over three years ago, the vet bluntly told me to my face, “He won’t last much longer.”

In fact, the Spitz has dodged the proverbial scythe several times. A vet prescribed him the wrong heart pills in the wrong dose. I phoned her several times in the evening because Samy could hardly go for a walk, but she stuck to her medication.

Samy was in an extremely critical condition

It is only thanks to another vet and his quick action that the dog is still here today. I remember coming into the practice with Samy on a Saturday morning, and the vet came into the treatment room, turned white as a sheet, and immediately took the dog away with the words: “Sorry, I don’t have time now; I have to save this dog immediately.” Samy had suffered a circulatory collapse and was in an extremely critical condition.

Another time, he had severe diarrhea and needed urgent infusions. All the vets I’ve ever seen (and there are quite a few of them) were either on vacation or thought the effort was too great (“He’ll definitely have to be hospitalized. We don’t have time for that.”). Others weren’t accepting new patients or didn’t have an appointment until the following week.

There hadn’t been any veterinary clinics within a radius of 100 kilometers for a long time. In the end, a colleague at work put in a good word for me with her vet. When she had Samy on the treatment table, she said: “It’s good that you came. The dog certainly wouldn’t have survived the night.”

My personal trauma

However, the worst experience in my life with an old dog was the night when we were playing cards at home, and Samy was lying in his dog bed. Suddenly, he started coughing. Normally, I always jump up immediately when this happens because it has happened often enough that he has briefly fainted because of the coughing. However, that hadn’t happened for a while, so I stayed seated at first but kept a close eye on him.

Then something happened that was to traumatize me: The coughing got worse, and Samy slumped over. I ran over and picked him up in my arms, but he couldn’t breathe. Suddenly, he let out screams that sounded like death itself! I was in a panic and completely headless. Luckily, Volker, my partner, stayed calm. He took him off my hands and went outside with the dog in his arms. The cool night air filled Samy’s lungs and soothed him.

The death cries haunted me for several years

Volker then wrapped a water tablet in liverwurst and gave it to the emergency patient. We spent the rest of the night with Samy on the living room floor. By then, he was 16, and I was firmly convinced that I would have to put him to sleep.

Those deathly cries haunted me for years. I couldn’t sleep a wink for nights on end. Every evening and every night, I was afraid it would happen again. But to this day, nothing has ever happened again. On the contrary, since a vet later questioned, more by chance, why the dog’s grandpa was being given two heart tablets and a water tablet, I stopped taking one tablet on my own authority and halved the dose of the water tablet. Since then, the coughing has only occurred rarely. The downside: my trust in the veterinary profession has been permanently destroyed.

Help, the dog is running to the street!

When I had finally overcome the trauma of that night, the next one followed. However, this time, it was of a different nature: Samy was out and about in our garden at the time. I was sitting on the patio next to the garden gate. There is another garden gate behind the house. My partner was busy gardening when I asked the obligatory question: “Have you seen Samy?”

When Samy is at the back of the garden, i.e., at the other gate, I don’t see him. But that’s where he usually is. As always, Volker made a joke of my question, looked up in the air, and answered, “No.” But an inner voice urged me to go and take a look.

So I went to the garden gate and froze for a moment. The garden gate stood wide open, and Samy was nowhere in sight! I ran off and saw that Samy was already just outside the main road! Because he can’t hear anything, shouting doesn’t help. So I ran off in my garden shoes and managed to intercept him at the last moment and pick him up in my arms.

This image of Samy walking straight towards the street has stayed with me ever since. I’ve now become obsessed with checking that both garden gates are indeed closed every time. Sometimes, I even check twice.

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Living with an old dog has changed me

Years of living with an old dog in need of care have changed me. I’ve realized how fragile life is and that we only spend a few summers with our beloved four-legged friends. The most important thing for Samy is that I am with him. That’s why most evenings belong to him.

We go for a walk; then I sit next to him on the floor for hours so that he can sleep peacefully. And because he notices immediately when I get up and he gets restless, I even take him into the bathroom with me when I go for a shower. If his place ever remains empty, it will mark the end of an era for me. With this dog’s passing, a part of me will also be gone.

Visit Manuela and her dogs on Instagram:elvis_hundejournalistin