Benjamin Button’s Jake’s legs continue to fail him. There are good days, but the balance between good and bad has shifted more to bad. This household moves forward, so his bad legs days are now, normal legs days.
I’m trying to teach him to drag his legs. His first inclination when his legs don’t work is to sit and stare at me. I mean, I get it, I’m lovely. Stare away! But we probably need a better plan than that. So I try to entice him with food to come over to me, using whatever means necessary. My next effort might be to try him in a drag bag, to get him more used to his legs dragging behind him.
Um, help. 
We are having some changes elsewhere in his life also. We went from having a meatball maker to the plant equipment going on strike. He’s moved from going every day to every three days and it’s likely due to his bottom parts losing their production power. He’s not constipated, more like, his body just forgot it has to work. Luckily, there is a group on the Internet for everyone. Including parents of paralyzed (in any capacity) animals. So I asked this group ‘how can I make Jake poop (in a not-constipated-way)’ (oh the glamour in our every day)? And you know what, it’s one of their most popular questions, and that made it feel completely normal and it empowered me and I breathed relief. I won’t share the details (unless you need the same advice) but I will say that I proved even further that there isn’t anything I won’t do for the boys!
Don’t worry woman, I won’t have to poop for three days so you can sleep in! 
Oh Jake, I just love you! Hope your New Year is full of good things to come. Things with little Duke are going well…he’s learning to tell us when he has to go potty and he just loves our other two dogs and Mona loves him but Jack is scared of him. Boy I had forgotten what an adventure a puppy can be not a single day of boredom in our house.
I can read the joy in your words! This makes me so happy, love lives on in so many incredible moments and dogs, well dogs just propel us forward in such glorious ways! So happy for your family!
I just love the way you both adjust your lives to accommodate life as it evolves and I love his little crib set up in that last photo. 🙂 Is Jake able to use his wheels indoors or is it too “wheel-y” for the floors?
This is a great blog if you haven’t seen it yet: http://lessonsfromaparalyzeddog.com/ she talks about life with a paralyzed dog.
Have you considered getting him a wheely cart so that he can move around like normal? His belly and backlegs would be supported and he’d move around using his front.
We love you Jake!
Isn’t it great when the Internet affirms our “normalcy”? 😉 Glad Jake’s getting some help with his production, and now you have some really interesting cocktail conversation, don’t you? Haha!
Isn’t it great when you have to stimulate a bowl movement? I’ve got a client who has a dog that we need to do that for. Not glamorous but necessary!