What Now?

I turned eleven on February 7th. I’m officially a ‘senior’ dog, though nobody has bothered to tell me what that means.

I’ve had some sports injuries and I can’t jump like I used to, but I can still outrun Journey when we race down the driveway.

Mom says she and I are now at the same stage in life. That’s okay with me since mom can still take us hiking and do silly things with us.

I just wish mom would quit riding horses. She leaves me and Journey at home when she goes to the barn ’cause the horses don’t like us.

Mom tells me I will always be a silly boy no matter how old I get. I hope that’s true. Silly is fun and fun is good.

Journey keeps asking me when we’re gonna find another rescue dog that needs a home. I know mom misses having a pack of worn out mutts underfoot.

But it’s hard to know what to do. Should we get an old mutt who just needs a place to hang out? It would have to be a special dog that didn’t mind Journey racing around the house and using me for a landing pad.

Or should we pull a young dog out of a shelter so that Journey has somebody to play with when I don’t feel like Aussie slam games?

Mom says we have to be patient. The right dog will find us. In the meantime me and mom do fun stuff. She trusts me off leash so we walk together in quiet places.

Sometimes I wish you could put life on rewind and go back to times when everything was just right. Maybe that’s what pictures are for. They remind you of a special time that you want to remember forever.

Here’s one of my favorite pictures. It’s me and Tess with Jack and Nellie in the back of the car. It was crowded but we sure had fun together.

It’s hard to make sense of things. If we hang onto the past we can miss the present. Without living in the present we won’t make a past to remember. I don’t know what to think, so I try to enjoy every minute of my life the way it is. And right now I have little Journey, the best pal a mutt could have. She’s my present and my future. She’s pure joy and I love having her as my sidekick.