Age

One the miseries of pet ownership is when you lose an animal that you consider to be part of your family.  You may think that as you get older, the cycle of life and death may affect you less.  At least for me the opposite is true.  It seems the older I get, the more attached I get to my animals.  Recent years have not been fun, in the last 5 years I’ve lost a number of pets including Tuki, a ton of chickens and of course Nicki which was the hardest of all.  This year my dad and stepmom lost both of their dogs which was hard for me and had to be crushing for them.  A few weeks ago Ali and Shugs lost one of his two dogs, Latte.  Animal loss has been a sad part of my reality.

Sadie, who just turned 13 (we think) has been struggling with her rear hips/legs this year.  Both Nicki and Maggie suffered the same ailment as they got older.  With her pain she has become less active which has resulted in a lot of weight being packed on her frame the last year as well which only exacerbates her problems.  Despite her issues she had fun out at the house with Elsa, rough housing and even jogging in short spurts.  However Ali said that she has been in bad shape since I dropped her off Monday, having a tough time walking and eating. Presumably she overdid the activity at the house. Ali lives in a two story town home with upstairs bedrooms so the stairs are an absolute killer for a dog with bad hips.

It’s a Catch 22 that not only affects dogs but humans as well.  You age, things hurt and you do less.  As you do less you gain weight or suffer other negative side effects which continue to cause you to shrink your box of capability, until you can’t do a damn thing at all.  The trick is to try to stay ahead of the curve because at a certain age trying to play catch up is a mountain sized task.

I have gone through this scenario enough to know what is coming, I just hope to be able to manage it the best I can.