Depression hurts everyone

I've been home nearly a week already and in some ways, I am just trying to catch up with life. I was out of school the entire week before my trip back East, which proved to be very helpful at the time. I was packing late into the night Tuesday night, but not nearly to the point that I have in the past. But you take a girl who's been out of school for two and a half weeks and then throw her back into an 11 hour day at school . . . well, for a short week, last week was a LONG week.

My parents stayed behind for a second week on the lake, visiting longer with my aunt Jean and uncle Rob and their children and grandchildren, as well as my grandmother who lives here in Vancouver, but was back East visiting as well. They return tomorrow and while they have been gone, my best friend Kate has been housesitting for my parents, staying in their home and caring for the family dog, Sparky.



Sparky isn't doing so well. The last week, he's been spinning more and more into a doggie depression and is making me start to wonder if I should look into Wellbutrin for him. I mean, seems like everyone is taking it these days, or some form of it, so maybe that would be what Sparky needs to get out of his funk.

The thing is, Sparky is getting pretty old. He's going to be 11 years old in September, and he is not as energetic or funloving as he was when he was two or three. But the changes in his behavior in the last two weeks have been massive. When I have gone to visit him, I haven't been able to get him to even take his favorite treats and he didn't do his happy excited dance when he first saw me. I realize in the entire structure of the family favorites by Sparky, I rank about fifth in our family of five (Mom, Andy, Dad, Grandma and then Me) but you'd think that after a week of not seeing anyone who has been familiar in the last week and a half, I would have gotten a squeak hello.

They are coming home tomorrow night and I am hoping to see a happy, rejoicing dog when they walk through the door. I've tried several times to cheer him up by talking to Mom on speakerphone, but it did no good. He still had that sad, far off "I'd be better off dead" look in his eye. To say the least, its a bit heartbreaking.