Rescue Journal

a great run for the money of life

Carol  ·  Apr. 8, 2013

this weekend, it really hit me how ancient are jesse, tina, jerry, and mini....each of them at least 17 and a couple stretching into 18 or soon to be 19. so many of our animals are living into ages extreme by any definition....Gideon living WELL at 38?...amazing.

what boggles the mind is how well they age. these are not decrepit old souls sleeping their last days away, unable to participate in actual living. jerry is still biting and giving the dogs shit...mini is still barking and bossing everyone around...jess and tina are still out and trucking for walks and dicking around at the barn....Gideon is still rolling, bless his strong gentle heart. some are getting blinder and deafer by the day...all of them are weaker and more frail. but not one of them has packed their days in yet, they have the get up and go to get up and go get.

five more miracles among hundreds of miracles that we are honored to witness....al, pops, bill..stripe...maudie fer chrissakes!

if growing old had its own Aging Well Olympics...saints is always chocked full of gold medalists.
sometimes I wonder...why is this?

it is not just because we give them the meds that makes old age take a back seat to living. I think it is more than that. I think it is because they are surrounded by virtual agelessness. there is a lot of life going on here around us and living is contagious.

we suffer so much death when end of life finally catches up to one of us but man...everyone just keeps running the race of really living until the last possible second.

these guys are heroes...they give old age and eventual death a good, hard run for the money. they give this race that we call living 100% right to the finish line.

I love every single one of our beyond ancient ancients...such incredible heroes of truly giving their all to the business of living.

Comments

Bunny Horne

Hey, Y'all, Friskies Cat Food - 48 pack - is on coupon at Costco until April 21st. Sell price after coupon is $18.19.

Maryk

I think that it's 2 things - first, Naomi is right. Many of them came from terrible circumstances. This is the best part of their lives.

And second, you let them live their lives as the animal that they are - dog, cat, pig, etc. You don't ask much of them, you just let them be & support them as much as you can when things get rough. No wonder they want to stay as long as they can.

Great job, SAINTS crew!

Penny

You're not a wuss, Roff! Being loved unconditionally probably has a lot to do with it.

roff

I think it speaks to the power of being surrounded by love from a variety of species. But maybe I'm a wuss ...

naomi

I wonder if its because some of them havent really lived till they get to SAINTS, so they live it up and want to make the good times last :)