Living with my elderly Aunt and my AmStaff

I’ve heard the stories where certain breeds of dogs are more sensitive to the elderly and the young.   And I’d never had any experience with this.  But now,, now I actually can say I have.

My Aunt Jean is 72 years old and very weak and unsteady on her feet.  She loses her balance, falls into things and has spent several hours on the floor when no one was around to help her.  It was decided due to her last time on the floor for who knows how many hours, she could no longer live alone.  This past Thanksgiving she moved in with me and my husband.

We have (or had) three pitbulls, Peter – a American Staffordshire Terrier, Jessie – American Pitbull Terrier, and Honey – a young bulldog / pitbull mix.  At first they were very curious about Aunt Jean, following her around, staring at her, and even barking at her due to her ’slow and unsteady’ shuffle and cane.  Oh and they’d bark at her walker too.   But that all passed in a few days; I let them sniff and check out the walker up close so they no longer considered it scary.  And in a few more days they got used to her shuffle and cane.

Soon after Jean moved in Peter started this very irritating high pitch whine.  I could not figure it out, he’d never done it before.  I just figured it was due to a lack of attention; being jealous of my time with Jean.  So I would reprimand him for it and send him away.  But no longer. 

Recently, I helped Jean go to bed, around 9:00 PM, and then I went upstairs to watch some TV with hubby and get ready for bed myself.  Around 1:00 AM Peter came up to my room and started this ear aching whine.  I told him to get out and I closed the door in his face.  He whined at the door for a while longer, but eventually he stopped.  I woke up at 6:30 AM and went down stairs to get breakfast ready.  And to my horror Jean was lying on the floor in her room.  She was cold, thirsty and tired but otherwise unharmed.  She had been lying on the floor since about 1:00 when she had tried to make it to the bathroom. 

Peter had tried to tell me and I shut him down… poor baby had been so worried.  Jean says she remembers him trying to kiss her, and she told him to stop.  He laid down near her, and then he would leave.  She assumed to potty or drink, but  I know he had tried to get my attention. 

Well I no longer shut the door when I sleep, and if Peter is whining I get moving.  Just this morning, I woke to him sitting at the foot of my bed, ears pinned to his head, whinning in that ohh so irritating pitch.  I hurried down stairs to find Jean struggling to get out of bed, and frustrated that she could not get her balance.   All was well, but had she continued her efforts she would have probably fallen.  Thank heavens Peter is so smart

Earlier I said we have (or had) three pitbulls.  Jessie, my sweet chocolate female, had to be put down.  She nearly killed two small poodles that lived in my neighborhood.  She had gotten out the front door by accident.  It just so happens at that moment an older woman with small two poodles came walking by.  Jessie hurt both the dogs; thankfully we got them to the vet and they were fixed up.  But it cost me $1000 to get them fixed up.  And I knew the lady, I am very lucky she has not sued me.  But that was not the last of it.  A few weeks after that happened, she attacked Honey – they were just out in the back yard one second playing,, the next second Jessie had her in a death grip.  I did not mean too, but I really hurt Jessie in my efforts to get her to let go of Honey. 

I took them both to the vet, and we could have had the damage repaired – regardless the cost, but would this just happen again.  She had a cracked canine that would need surgery, a tear on her mouth, and her shoulder was pretty torn up from where Honey had gotten a grip on her.  And me shaking Jessie while hanging from her hind legs only made the tears worse.  Honey had some pretty deep punctures on her throat, face , ears and legs. 

Sadly, we decided Jessie was just too much of a risk; we loved her, and she loved people,  but dogs seemed to be fair game, even those within our home.  We miss her.  It was a sad day.

Respectfully,

Suzanne Golden