Thursday, March 12, 2009

Chilly in Therapy

Over the past year, and especially over the past few months, Chilly's arthritis has given him increasing trouble getting around. He no longer goes for walks, and recently has had difficulty doing stairs and jumping on the bed. Even just walking around the house usually is done with painful hobbling. Tonight I took him for his first visit to doggie physical therapy. The therapist, who also does therapy on humans in her spare time, started Chilly on the underwater treadmill:

He tried to cheat at first by putting his back feet on the non-moving part, but eventually he got the hang of it and seemed to actually enjoy himself. After three rounds on the treadmill, he got into the pool; at first he just floated, but then he realized that he could swim:

Overall, Chilly seemed to enjoy his time there. He came home and ate a huge dinner, and then fell asleep.