When my dad was dying, during what turned out to be his last hospital stay, he started to exhibit very weird behavior every night as late afternoon turned into evening. He'd have a pretty lucid, alert day; acting like himself but as soon as the 5 o'clock news came he'd start acting like a loon.
Often times, he'd start by muttering to himself and leering out of the corner of his eye, looking past me. I remember thinking he looked like Snagglepuss as his personality morphed. But in a really un-fun way.
It turns out that my dad was what is called A Sundowner. A sundowner is an old person who starts to go bonkers when the sun goes down. Just when you thought it couldn't get worse. I don't even remember how we learned this. Either my sister found out from one of the 25 doctors and two nurses at the hospital or I read it online. All I know is I've never felt the same about dusk since then.
Until Cooper.
Cooper is our new puppy who is the friendliest, most well-behaved ambassador of goodwill you could possibly imagine. Until the sun goes down. When it starts getting dark and shadows look like over sized retrievers Cooper gets jittery and crazed.
"Looks like we got a sundowner on our hands," my husband and I say to each other, remembering those long, challenging nights sleeping in the 2 foot wide bed next to my dear dad.
But we're learning how to cope. Why, just tonight, when Cooper was able to concentrate enough to take a poop after the sun had set, I thought, MY DAD WOULD BE SO PROUD.
Be good,
Private So and So
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