Medicated Cassie -- More Normal

I've alluded several times to the personality change that the phenobarbital has had on Cassie. In short, she's been more of a normal dog while medicated than she's been her entire life. That sentence begs an explanation! Cassie is a very jittery dog. She's afraid of most people. She's reluctant to take treats, even from people she knows. She shakes sometimes when we come up to her, to pet her. Once 4th of July, she shook off 6 milligrams of valium. She woke herself up when they were doing the MRI on her last month (to keep them still, they sedate dogs to unconsciousness when doing MRI's). I've often thought that she simply runs at a different clock speed than other dogs. On top of that, she's lived a mostly very sheltered life. Our house is situated such that she rarely sees people. And, we don't often have visitors. Worst of all, since Ally has been gone, she's needed to act "in charge". And, as Maxine has often said, she's wired funny. What's 'funny' is that under the influence of her meds (we think it's the barbituate), that jittery edge is gone. She's more trusting. She'll go up to people and ask them to pet her. She's more comfortable around people, and as a consequence, other people are more comfortable around her. She rarely barks (mostly just at the neighboring dogs) any more. Sorry to say, but she's easier to be around! Of course, there are the times that the meds overwhelm her and she seems lethargic, tired, withdrawn, and just trudging. Those are the times that she reminds us of the last days of Ally and we worry that that's what we're seeing in her. We don't know. We're taking the advice of various people, plus what's in our own hearts, and loving her as much as we can, not knowing if we've only got days left with her... [Since her diagnosis via the MRI a month ago, she's been alone for less than 20 hours, in total, not in a week. And, it may be as little as less than 12 hours. We're proud of that]