With Ketzl on the decline, every day bring a new challenge, a new obstacle to overcome, a new way to show her how much we love her by making her life the best we can, given the circumstances.

As DM has moved forward, it’s affected all the muscles along the way. Recently, it’s affected her facial muscles. When she lies down, her upper lip tends to work its way into her mouth, and when she sleeps, she bites it. She’s stoic, but I’m sure it’s painful.

We’ve tried to come up with a way to deal with this, and Zabeth hit upon an approach that works, for the most part.

Z took two wide picture hanging hooks, re-bent them and smoothed the edges. Combined with a shoelace, we can hook her upper list on both sides and tie the shoelace over the top of her muzzle. It looks a little silly—kind of like braces—but it holds up her lip just enough… and it’s healing.

Ah, necessity…