I am doing something stupid, which is letting the dog run big loops in my two neighbors’ yards in the morning before we go for our walk. He doesn’t consistently come when he’s called and he’s definitely too far away for me to control him with anything other than voice commands.
But when I see it, I just can’t bring myself to stop it. There in the dark, this pale blob, circling and circling and then running straight at me, tongue lolling, smile on his face. He pants and looks up at me like whoa, this is a good life.
And then this morning, he slid/rolled down the hill a good three or four feet and he wasn’t afraid. He loved it. And he leaped up and looked at me and then launched into this beautiful roll. And I felt so lucky to see it, so lucky to be there for it.
How often do we see miracles and just not realize it?
Yesterday, thanks to Facebook, I realized it was the third anniversary of the day we got him. If the vet’s initial assessment of his age was right, this makes him seven. I hate that with my whole heart because I can’t find any breed that he might be even a small part of that has a life expectancy longer than 10-12 years. We could, realistically, only have left as much time as we’ve had with him.
And yet, he seems so young to me because he is still learning things. He’s not yet set in his ways. There are still new things.
And even if it’s only for a short time, I feel very lucky to have him.
Tiny Cat Pants 
That’s such a nice thought. Missing my dog as well, even though she eats my head and likes munching on my slippers. Tomorrow she is going to the groomer and hopefully she likes being there. xoxo
I think that’s some of the beauty and zen of having a dog. We get so few years with them and it is so heartbreaking and hard that they live such shorter lives than we do. But it’s like they can do so much more with that time than we do, they take nothing for granted, they don’t worry about the future, or how short their lives are. They do all the things that make them happy just because. :)
We’re finding ourselves with our Eldergoth Dog who is 12 1/2 and just starting to slow down, a little, when we don’t keep her cosequin dosed right. She’s part Blue Heeler which typically live to be 13-15 and Border Collies which range from 13-17.
And then there’s the Boydog who is just pushing 9 and has had hip problems since we got him at 1 year old and is already gray around the eyes and muzzle and the largest breed of all of the pack, and he might be the first we lose. He’s also prone to tumors, thusfar which have all been the usual benign fatty tumor growths common to dogs, but there’s one forming on his ribcage that’s been actually hurting him. And I am not even sure how to approach thinking about losing the “baby” of the pack before the others.
Meanwhile, the Blonde Menace is almost 10 now and has cheated death a couple of times already and seems never to age, neither in looks nor behavior…so, I have no idea what’s going on there. Labs are a 10-12 but Basenji live 12-16. Although she’s Lab-sized…so…it’s weird to ponder the mortality of dogs. They never do so about us or themselves…