by sheila morris
And the answer is October 1st. is their birthday.
former President Jimmy Carter is 99 years old today
my Texas sister Leora has an age number, but hers is unlisted
our granddaughter Ella is four years old today
Each person I celebrate today with faith and hope that the next generations will have the opportunities to continue their journeys toward destinations of personal joy, public service, and commitment to equal justice for all.
Happy Birthday to Ella, Leora and Mr. President!
I don’t care how many dogs you have
I want to come inside this morning before the dogs are awake
I’m sorry for your allergies, but I know you have zyrtec
please let me in
Our friend Erin tells us this is a male cat that’s been neutered – I refuse to give him a name other than Cat because he deserves a forever home to welcome him indoors which is where he evidently believes he belongs. He is affectionate, playful, and has grown bigger during the relentlessly hot South Carolina summer months. Full disclosure he has a knot on his neck that should be removed. Pretty and I will gladly pay for the surgery but can’t provide care he would need afterwards.
This Cat needs to be rescued from our carport – and from us.
Anyone interested please contact me at smortex@aol.com.
Earlier this year our fifteen year old terrier Carl began strange behavior in the late afternoon that didn’t concern Pretty and me at first, behavior we could ignore but gradually attracted our attention when it became more pronounced as time passed. Between 4 and 5 o’clock every afternoon now Carl paces back and forth between the den and kitchen like a tiger in a zoo, becomes agitated like monkeys can be in a cage at the zoo. Anxious, disoriented, restless for four hours of the day, yet content and clingy with us otherwise. Because of our experience with my mother’s dementia in her later years, Pretty and I were better equipped to recognize similar patterns of changes in Carl.
We were still unsure about a diagnosis of his doggie dementia (Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome or CDS) issues until a conversation with our vet last month confirmed what we also suspected was his total inability to hear anything or anyone. The deafness seemed to happen suddenly this summer, but it could have taken place over a long period of time, Dr. Wales told us. When I asked about other issues Carl had that seemed to happen late in the afternoon and early evening, she explained sundowning in animals occurs similarly to humans.
At our house we have three rescued dogs that live inside ranging in ages from 10 to 15 years. While our best guesses about their ages may be slightly off, Pretty and I laugh about running an assisted living home for elderly dogs. Their activities of daily living (ADL) include eating, sleeping, guarding our home against unwanted doorbell ringers, protecting our mailbox from the mail carriers unlucky enough to be assigned to our address, and occasional short walks. Carl’s hearing loss this summer has been an obvious physical change but not totally unexpected since he had serious ear infections when he came to us in 2020. The behavioral changes, however, have definitely been gradual with increasing intensity, and some research explores a significant incidence of deafness in dementia.
We keep a watchful eye on Carl to monitor his quality of life, but so far he manages to keep up with his ADL; his favorites continue to be eating and sleeping which, if I am honest, are probably mine, too. Dr. Wales told us CDS could not be cured and would worsen as he got older. She did prescribe gabapentin which we tried for two weeks but didn’t appear to help – now I am searching for other options from Dr. Google. These past two days I gave Carl Melatonin gummies in small doses, but he wasn’t happy with the taste and/or texture of the gummies – so peanut butter was the answer for us. Again, limited improvement in his conditions so far, but we’ll keep trying. If anyone in cyberspace has recommendations they have successfully used for Sundowner Syndrome in dogs, please share!
Carl interpreted by Wayside Artist Ann D’onofrio
****************************
P.S. Note to my friends at Animal Couriers in Europe: older cats may also have CDS – Web MD has great info on feline symptoms and treatment. As with everything else I’ve learned about cats, feline behavioral changes can be disguised more easily by cats than by dogs. Hm…makes me wonder.
Turner Classic Movie fans and/or folks who are old enough to remember the year JFK was elected President might think of The Sundowners as a 1960 movie starring Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr.
Those folks would be right about the movie, but for many others the sundowners are not actors in a movie – they are people characterized by real life problems. The Mayo Clinic offers the following definition of the word.
The term “sundowning” refers to a state of confusion occurring in the late afternoon and lasting into the night. Sundowning can cause different behaviors, such as confusion, anxiety, aggression or ignoring directions. Sundowning can also lead to pacing or wandering. Sundowning isn’t a disease. It’s a group of symptoms that occur at a specific time of the day. These symptoms may affect people with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia. The exact cause of this behavior is unknown.
My first personal experience with sundowning was with my mother who began strange behavior before I attributed her late afternoon anxiety to a specific cause. Full disclosure I lived a thousand miles away from her Richmond, Texas home in South Carolina in the 1990s, visited twice a year, out of touch with her daily life. We maintained our long distance fragile mother-daughter relationship via weekly telephone calls once upon a time before cell phones. When my mom was in her early 70s, I went home to help her make arrangements for her brother Toby’s funeral in 1997. While I was there for a few days, I noticed she went through her house closing shutters every afternoon before supper. She also became very agitated until her best friend Willie Flora (who spent every night with her) arrived at suppertime. I dismissed this as having to do with a death of someone close to her.
Years passed, a new century brought changes to both my mother and me, but on my Texas visits I saw my mother’s early evening behaviors grew stranger. Her anxiety levels manifested paranoid issues I could no longer explain away. Sundowning was one of the first indications of the demon called dementia that robbed my aging mother of not only her memories but also her physical well-being.
When Pretty and I began to notice changes in Carl’s behavior in late afternoons this year, we talked about the sundowning syndrome.
Stay tuned for sundowning in dogs – it’s not just a human problem.
I flirted with the Dump Old Joe Movement for a hot minute, why?
because Joe is old, white and old.
Would I prefer young, not quite so white, and young?
Probably, but I think Joe’s doing a good job so why punish him
for two things he can’t control: his age and the color of his skin.
I am, however, a card carrying member of the Anybody But Trump Movement, why?
because Trump is old, white, and has been indicted on 91 criminal charges.
I never even glanced at the Kick Kamala to the Curb Movement, why?
Because Kamala is much younger at 58, a female person of color, outspoken champion of women’s rights to control our own bodies, brilliant, fights injustices and…
because people of color will determine the outcome of the 2024 election.
***************************
Slava Ukraini. For the adults in the room.
I'll Call It Like I See It 
You must be logged in to post a comment.