I share my home with a special needs dog
After two and a half years, I have settled into the routine of caring for my liver shunt Pekingese. At 7 o’clock, I prepare his meals for the day: I cook and mash sweet potatoes, boil and mash an egg, grated carrots, beetroot, celery as well as broccoli and then carefully measure three teaspoons of each into three bowls that go into the fridge, ready for meal times at 8 o’clock, 12 noon and 5 o’clock. But that is not where it ends; caring for a liver-shunt dog must be like watching for a disabled person. This is the story of my life and that of Pikku-Karhu, the Pekingese. I have always been an animal lover, and my first memories are of rescuing, caring for and rehabilitating small birds caught by the household cat. My safe place as a child was inside the aviary I helped my father build. It was only natural that our home had to have a dog when I got married eighteen years ago. Soon our family grew, and one dog became four. Four years ago, I became a volunteer with Pekingese Rescu