Slow, steady improvement.

Food remains an issue. Bao craves cooked chicken, and treats. But if I give him what he wants, he's up and down all night, because he gets gas in his gut and thinks he needs to go out and poop. This happens every half hour on the half hour, from midnight until about 4 AM, when we both fall into an exhausted sleep.

So it's back to the special, veterinary food. I mix it with chicken broth until it's the consistency of thick soup (easier to swallow and harder to spit out) and feed it to him with a spatula, a teaspoonful at a time. He is not enthusiastic. Several times a day he "hoovers" around the kitchen floor, hoping to find the odd crumb from a dog biscuit. I feel so sorry for him!

But I think he's getting stronger. Today, he tried to sit up on his hind legs. He can't, of course. His once sturdy little haunches are now just skin and bone. But at least he's trying. And he's able to balance on three legs and lift his leg to pee. Small gains. But he has been very, very sick.

Your comments and emails have helped so much! Thank you, from both of us. This has been terrible, and it's not over, yet. But I almost dare to let myself hope that we really are going to see light at the end of this tunnel.