Dog, and sodium, misbehave

Got lab test results from local blood draw Tuesday which showed that my liver was stable but not normal. Still, I got the go-ahead to reduce the prednisone to 30 mg. from 40. Meanwhile my sodium had dropped, necessitating a recheck yesterday.

I ate as many salty snacks as I could tolerate (I wish it was sugar!) and found out today that it was a little better but still low. I later took a salt pill. We'll see. My stomach is a little messed up again, and I woke up this morning shaky, wobbly and dizzy, then perked up when I had some juice and breakfast. Went for a walk with Barry, and he was kind enough to hold the dog. I hadn't totally recovered my strength from this morning, so that was a good idea.

Man's (and women's and children's) best friend is driving me a little crazy. She has still not resolved her house-training problems. She's good for maybe two days in a row, and then she leaves me an overnight nugget. I've stopped feeding her afternoons, and I've given her the run of the house. She could sleep with me, but she likes it downstairs, where she has her bed and her favorite place, the corner of the couch, covered with an afghan.

All happy, she runs up to get me around 7 a.m. and leads me down. If she's done something, she either cowers or acts like nothing is wrong. I have to drag her over and point it out. From time to time she barks at me. But she is a very passive dog, so I just get her on the leash and bring her over. The vet says I should crate her again, but Maddie was actually kind of weird in the crate. They're not supposed to, but she would do her business in there anyway and then inch away from the mess.

Today she wasn't so great on our walk, either. (I'd say she was "bad," but for dogs, that is not a pc word, as in "No Bad Dogs," only "bad" owners. Oy!) We tied her to the leg of one of the lightweight tables, told her to briefly hold our place, and went into the Mount Holyoke library, where there is a Rao's coffee shop tucked inside. While we were getting our stuff, a student came in and said, "Your dog is freaking out." Barry went out and found that Maddie had dragged the table all the way to the door, where she was whining and barking.

Then we went to the Odyssey Bookshop, an independent store that I like to support, and tied her for a minute or two there. I've done this before, and she usually sits and chills. Again, she went crazy.

So Barry sat with her when I got my books – "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," by Stieg Larsson; "Truth and Beauty," by Ann Patchett; and "Autobiography of a Face," by Lucy Grealy.

I'm starting with the first, a bestselling mystery and apparently a quick read, which is our book club choice before we break for the summer.

Meanwhile back to the dog...While I was writing this post I decided I needed a Coke, one of my major comfort foods, or drinks. Down the street at Tailgate Picnic, the place we call the deli, I hooked Maddie's leash on the white picket fence and told her sit quietly on the grass while I ran in.

She was just fine.

Maybe she liked the grass.

Or maybe she had been crying for her good friend Barry, and once it was just the dog and me, she didn't need to fuss.

Anyway, now she is curled up, lightly snoring, sleeping and cute on her bed. Maybe all that carrying-on helped wear her out. Katie and Joe are both out – Katie's in a play that I'm seeing tomorrow, and Joe is watching the Bruin's game with friends – so it is nice to have the dog for company.