I took Gus to see Dr. Suzanne Fariello today, we went over the last couple of weeks. I told her Gus seems to be digesting his regular food well. Whenever he eats anything outside of his diet, he regurgitates or vomits it.

His weight is stable – 15 lbs. He had another acupuncture treatment.

At one point Dr. Fariello asked me “is this something you and Maria can live with?” And i said  yes, it is.

Gus has good days and bad days, depending on what he eats. He is always foraging,  inside and out, there is only so much we can do. Today, we tried our third muzzle, this one might work. (more later.) The sense of  crisis around Gus’s megaesophagus is easing.

He is on two medications, now one, herbal, one to promote rapid digestion. We are use to days when there is no spitting up, and days when there is some. We understand this is the new normal, he might get better, he might get worse, he might stay the same. Nobody really knows, not Dr. Fariello, not us.

We don’t have need of a Bailey Chair at this point, and it is good news that Gus is handling his regular food now, it does not appear to be getting caught in the swollen esophagus. Everything else he eats does. It is a matter of texture, says Dr. Fariello.

So we are all settling in with disease, it is somewhat disruptive and time-consuming, but we have adjusted to it. Beyond this illness, which seems less severe in Gus than in many other dogs, this has become normal. Most nights, he sleeps in bed with us.

He loves to play, he loves sit quietly by the fire and meditate. We love having him. We feed him three times a day, and two or three times a week, has has accidents.

We are adaptable, and so is he. We are better for this, wiser, more confident, more loving. There is nothing more to know or do at this point. And we are becoming super-competent at clean up.We’ll try out the new muzzle so he can go outside and on walks without eating.

Gus is healthy, she said, strong heart, good weight, good body condition, alert and active. He is, she said, a “fire” dog in terms of Chinese medicine, he is sensitive and intense. That is all true.

This is part of life with animals of course, it isn’t all cute and fuzzy.