Ezri the Borker

Official account of Ezri the borkin' doggo.

[ezribork]

I’m so sorry to learn that Ezri passed away. She was delightful, and thinking of her borks always made me smile. I hope you and your fam are doing alright. 🥺

Thank you. 💚 She had a long life - 15 is a good run for any dog, and it wasn't unexpected at all, though making that decision was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Her last days were wonderful - the sun came out and we got to visit all her favourite places and spoil her with her favourite foods and lots of love.

It still hurts, as any loss does, but knowing what a long, happy life she got helps soothe the sadness. She had a rough start in life but I'm so grateful she ended up with us and I could give her so many years of love and joy.

It took a while before I could talk about her without crying, but I'm to a point where I can usually remember fond memories with a smile (and sometimes a tear or three).

We very recently got a german shepherd puppy, as a house doesn't feel like home without a dog in it. He's a handful and a half, and incredibly different from Ezri in personality - boisterous, sassy, and mischievous (and already bigger than she ever was, even at just 14 weeks). No dog will ever replace Ezri in our hearts though, of course. I'd like to think she'd be happy to know there's another dog looking after us now, making sure our hearts are full of joy and our clothes are covered in hair. 😊

[ezribork]

The best dog, the sweetest girl. Ezri borked her last bork today and passed peacefully at the age of 15, surrounded by family and friends, her belly full of chicken and her last days spent in nature and sun and love. Rest well. I love you.

[ezribork]

Have you tried librela for Ezri's joint pain?

She's on an anti-inflammatory and painkiller which helps a lot - since she's been taking it, she moves a lot better, and she started bouncing up on her hind legs again when excited for food or when she's borking. But she's still an old lady and can't handle almost 5 km of walking a day, so she gets transported around like the queen she is, and walks the bits she can when we're not in a rush. :)

[ezribork]

I’ve started walking with my daughter to and from school instead of cycling, but it’s 1.2 km each way (about 3/4 mile) and I do it 4x a day. Ezri is 14 now, and her stiff old bones mean she can’t go very far, or very fast. So she has a stroller now (it’s for a kid, but I added a pillow and some scarves to help ensure the front and sides are more secure for if we go over a bump - and she’s harnessed in anyway). She was a little unsure at first, but she’s ridden hundreds of times in a cargo bike, so once she realized it meant she got to go out and be with us, she had a good time. Ezri can ride to school with us and we can go fast enough to get there on time, and she rides most of the way back, till we get to a nice grassy bit and I let her out to have a leisurely sniff-and-pee at her own pace. 

[ezribork]

It was a beautiful summer evening, so we went to the playground after dinner. Ezri’s getting on in years, and it’s become obvious that she’s losing her hearing pretty significantly. I’ve always done hand signs along with her commands, just in case of exactly this happening, and it’s become especially useful now that she only seems to understand about maybe 10-20% of the commands I give her verbally. So we spent a while this evening reinforcing the hand signs, and adding a double-stomp along with her name to get her attention, because she’s at about 98% accuracy if she can see me do the hand signs for her commands, but doesn’t always respond to her name. Even though she is an old dog, she is still incredibly easy to train - she’s super eager to please and intelligent, and by the end of the visit to the playground, we were doing fully hand signs, no verbal commands, in repeated sit-stay-come-heel cycles all around the playground as the light went golden and started to wane. Hopefully her eyesight will hold out for a while longer - I know it’s really bad in the dark these days and her eyes have some of that old dog fog, but even if she’s blind and deaf, we’ll figure something out. She has me well trained, at least - follows me when I turn off all the downstairs lights and lays down for me to carry her upstairs, and then wags her tail and looks at my bed expectantly till I give in and help her up onto it so she can sleep in bed with me rather than on her big stack of cushions on the floor beside my bed. She’s spoiled, but she deserves it. <3

[ezribork]

We went on a picnic today. Ezri sniffed and peed on many things, ran around with other dogs, and ate half my sandwich. A good day.

[ezribork]

Ezri has learned that my children are defenseless against this pose and will give her anything she wants when she does. She does it a *lot* now. 

[ezribork]

It’s a million degrees out so I’m spraying Ezri down a couple times an hour. It’s hot enough she actually is sitting still for it.

[ezribork]

This has gotta be the closest and most relaxed that Moksi and Murder Cat have ever been around each other. Can't tell from this angle but they're all snoring.

And of course also Ezri, though they both love and will snuggle with her.

[ezribork]

I’m about 2/3 through Ezri’s spring brush-out. I brush her normally, but every spring, I do an intense, all over brushing that strips out just her shedded undercoat, removing it entirely. I have to do it in steps because it takes hours to really get in there and pull out her whooooole undercoat. She just sprawls across my lap/the couch, groaning and grunting happily as I make a giant pile of fur several times her size. But DAMN is it worth it. I can run my hand over her coat and see exactly where I’ve done and what still needs doing. Not only is her undercoat mostly dark grey and her guard hairs are white, so she changes colour, but the density and texture is remarkably different. Once brushed it’s light and fluffy and you can see straight down to her skin when you ruffle her fur. It’s gotta feel *so good* to get rid of all that itchy old fur. She’s bouncy like a puppy... and keeps hopping up beside me expectantly, like I’m gonna brush her more.

[ezribork]

All the cushion covers are warm out of the dryer so I covered Ezri in them.

[ezribork]

It's a really nice day so we're having a picnic. Ezri has sniffed many things, peed on some of those things, and said hi to many dogs.

[ezribork]

Well, this is new.

[ezribork]

Ezri is helping me knit.

[ezribork]

Nevermind the actual bed in this room that she can get onto, as well as the dog bed and multiple pillows, this lil shit would prefer to sleep in my clean laundry.

[ezribork]

Ezri loves kids - especially when they make her extra cosy with soft warm blankets.

[ezribork]

Gained several dozen new grey hairs last night... Not only did my kid hit a parked car with her new bike and scraped up the door...

But at about 2:30 am, Ezri woke me up by jumping on my head. I reacted with predictable confused indignance and she just glued herself to me, forcibly snuggling me while panting heavily. And then she stood up and puked all over my bed, and then the rug. In my bleary haze of wtf I had no idea what was up with her but clearly non typical behaviour.

I carries her downstairs to get her some water... And noticed that there were chewed up turkey bones from dinner on the floor. She's never given bones and there were sharp shards scattered around... so naturally, I began panicking.

Decided to try taking her out for a walk so I could see if her behavior changed with some fresh air (and if she didn't want to go that would tell me something too)... Threw on my wool cape, a leather hat I wear in the rain, and a scarf over my pyjamas and walked her at 3 am around the block. She was a little grumbly/snuffly but fine, peed and pooped and sniffed many things, and by the time we got home she was wagging her tail and seemed happy to have gotten a bonus walk.

So of course I stayed up till like 4:30 worrying about her and over analysing every snore and twitch... but there was no more vomiting or panting, and she was asleep long before I was.

And today she's perfectly fine - eating and drinking and in good spirits, thank Todd. And everyone in the house with two legs has gotten a strongly worded lecture on making sure bones are out of reach of the pets because I don't think my savings account could bear a 3 am emergency vet visit at Christmas, in addition to getting some random person's car door repainted too.