Rescue Journal

they have been lying to me.

Carol  ·  Mar. 12, 2013

is there a point when these extreme senior dogs just take one more tiny baby step deeper into old age and suddenly, in one single instant, they step over the line into ancient fraility?

is that is what is happening to peluchi and shane? i seem to remember maude doing that somewhere around 18 or 19. one day she was an aging miracle of ok-ness and the next she was an aging mess.
we probably have some of the oldest dogs in shelter care here...al at 19, jesse, jerry, tina, mini me at 18, peluchi, shane, buddy at 17, and then a whole whack of others hanging around at least well into 16 but i am not so sure of their actual birthdates.

we have a helluvalot of really old dogs.

and usually while i know in my head how old they really are...my eyes and my heart don't see it too often because these guys do not act like they are this old....until they start to fall apart. then suddenly it is like a lightening bolt...holy shit honey...why did you suddenly start feeling so old????
shane has been cheerfully out to lunch for awhile but his body has been happily prancing around here despite his old brain. brown buddy runs and barks and plays like a madman and he still doesn't know he is ancient.
if it wasn't for al's current cancer, i don't think he would have a clue how many years and miles he has accumulated on his old body too.

so what is it with some of these really old dogs...does their batteries just keep reliably chugging along until poof! suddenly they are un-rechargably drained???

or is it something hiding inside that we just can't see...something big like a a cancer? or a minor infection? a small injury? that starts that whole process of suddenly the body feels its true age?

well i don't like it. if they can bounce around here for almost 2 decades, and make me believe they will live happily and well forever, then i think they should just keep doing that.
i am starting to realize that some of them have been leading me along in some kind of forever young, fountain of youth fantasy.
and that is not fair.

Comments

Ian and Mary

Maybe naming the next incoming senior 'Ponce de Leon' would help.....our little Saints alumnus, Lola Banana, has been leading us along for over 2 years now and has no plans to change that!

Cheri

Living is blissful denial is the only way at times.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if they never left us?
Xoxox