Jane’s Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Caesar, always looks serious and he has every reason too. He takes his job as Dog Diag”nose”er to heart! Jane’s learned to pay attention to his common-dog-“scents” because it saved her life.
He was named after an emperor and apparently is a doggy doctor or was a doctor in a previous life!
Their bedtime ritual starts when Jane snuggles into bed then Caesar jumps up and rests on her stomach, all 17 pounds of him, for soothing pats while Jane reads. In the morning, while she does yoga pelvic lifts while Caesar jumps aboard her body for the fun ride up and down.
Then everything changed!
“One night he refused to get up on my stomach,” said Jane. “He lay beside me, but when I lifted him up on my belly, he wouldn't look at me or stay unless I held his collar. It was obvious, he did not want to be there.
I remembered a friend of mine whose cat loved sleeping on her chest and when the cat stopped doing it, she scheduled a mammogram and guess what - cancer.
I knew I’d better go see a GI doctor because Caesar ‘scent’ed something was wrong. Although I was stymied on what to say and still appear sane. What would a doctor think if I said, ‘My dog thinks there's something wrong with my gut!?"
Two weeks later at 3:00 a.m., I awoke to excruciating pain. The emergency room tests indicated that I had an E.Coli infection and a bowel obstruction. I spent three days in the hospital. My diag-‘nose’-tic dog was right!
Animals paws-ess intuitive abilities. A Harvard study purr-oved that canines can identify, in advance, both seizures and diabetics/hypoglycemia episodes. Some dogs can detect breast cancer from the breath of a person. There's an intimacy in smelling a person's breath. Of course, pets are healing presences in our lives too.”
And how was Jane’s bedtime ritual after her return home?
“When I lay down, Caesar immediately crawled up onto me, licked my face and sighed as I stroked his soft red and white fur. ‘Next time,’ I told Dr. Dog, ‘I'll listen to you.’”
