The vet I take my dogs to once told me that the day a lab stops being a puppy is the day he dies. These dogs just never grow out of that fun loving, goofy, neurotic puppy thing. I guess that's part of the reason so many of them end up in shelters, surrendered for being 'too much trouble'.
While my Jack is very much still a puppy at heart, his age is beginning to show. He's eating senior food, in the mornings his hips are slow to help him up, and his hearing is at best mediocre.
But he'll still try stupid tricks for the pleasure of a bite of hamburger. Anything for his boy.
This dog is so attached to my brother it's sometimes hard to believe. We call him the mother hen of the family, because the moment he loses sight of Jonathan he begins to whimper and pace the floor. And he doesn't stop until Jon is safely home, and in his sight again.
Jack turns 8 years old on election day and sometimes I look back on the years and wonder where the time has gone.
I meet kids sometimes who have never had a pet. There is this notion that children should have some sense of responsibility before owning an animal. But I scoff at the thought. No matter how much it will hurt in the end (and it will), Jon grew up with his best bud. Dogs are loyal by nature, and this one has been one of the best.
1 comment:
this almost made me tear up...so sweet! and so true, they are like family. i still miss the golden retriever that was my bud from age 7-20.
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