Friday, February 8, 2019

Air Scare



 Our little dog Mamie is generally a placid, quiet little person.
She spends her day sleeping, following me around the house, and going for walks. But once in a while we have rough patches. She’s terrified, TERRIFIED, of smoke alarms and should a fly or mosquito get into the house, she shakes and stares into the air above her like a WWII Londoner during the Blitz.

          We were fine yesterday. I went out to the grocery store and came home to my usual happy little dog. She traveled back and forth with me as I brought in the groceries and supervised will I swept the walkway in front of our house.

          Then the Messerschmitts returned. She hid under the table, had to join me in the bathroom, and finally ending up with a round of shaking. I took her out for a walk and that seemed to break the cycle.

          I spent some time in the afternoon writing, listening to music on headphones to drown out My Guy’s audio book nearby. After dinner, I settled down to watch TV and instead of joining me on the couch, Mamie went back under a table.

          I became aware of a sort of constant hum or buzz and went from room to room to see if I could pinpoint it. Maybe this was what had been bothering her – a sort of electronic mosquito. Fridge? No. Lights and their dimmers? No.

Heating/Air conditioning? Not on. Nothing was running. I gave up and went back to HGTV.

          When I tucked myself in that night in the quiet bedroom, I noticed the sound again, although not as strong as before. Fading? On a hunch, I Googled tinnitus. Hmmm.

          I’m thinking in the future I need to turn down the Pandora in my earbuds.

          Mamie, I can’t explain. Maybe I’d better check her dog bed for a tiny iPod.

8 comments:

  1. My tinnitus is a clicking sound in my left ear. It comes and goes, and although it bothers me some, I don't have it as bad as some people do. Poor Mamie! She's certainly sensitive to sounds. But she has you to help her through the worst of it. :-)

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  2. I have tinnitus but it's more of a high pitched whine. sometimes I notice it, sometimes not.

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  3. I have tinnitus -- at least one sound in each ear at all times, sometimes two in one ear.

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  4. Maybe you left your iPod on and you're hearing the echo from the earbuds across the room?! In which case Mamie would hear it too. How strange!

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  5. Poor Mamie. I hope you can find and remove that tiny iPod.

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  6. Dogs have much more sensitive hearing than humans so perhaps the fridge humming is Mamie's form of tinnitus? I've had tinnitus for years and mostly just tune it out, it gets louder when I take any form of painkiller especially aspirin and when I take antihistamines, which is most of the year.

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  7. Thankfully when I hear something it is usually a sound I can identify. Now from my smeller..that is another issue.

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  8. keep really good treats with you and when she starts to shake give her a treat eventually she won't be as scared. :)

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Thanks for stopping by and I'd love to hear what you think.