My Puppy is Getting Old

It just came out of the blue....Dutch, our precious black lab, got old. Well, it didn't technically happen over night. He IS 12 years old. He turned 12 in October. However, he has always acted like a puppy until recently. He still likes to 'follow us from the front' whenever we walk around the house. However, there are times that he can't hear us put his food in his bowl, so we have to search the house for him when it's time to eat.

Two years ago, we had to put our beloved yellow lab, Duke, to sleep because he was getting old and having problems with incontinence, pain, hearing loss, etc. It was the hardest decision of my life. I had to ultimately make the decision because The Man couldn't bring himself to do it. We took him together, I drove and he sat in the back of the car with Duke. It was the worst trip of my life....the longest too, even though our vet is only 15 minutes away.

Ever since Duke died, Dutch has slowed down quite a bit. He went into mourning for a good two weeks. He would lie around and whimper and even look out the window waiting for Duke to come home. It was just so sad.

Dutch has always been my 'baby.' He follows me everywhere and knows where to come when he's afraid (and he's pretty much afraid of everything.) Sometimes he climbs onto my lap (all 97 pounds of him) and sits there like he's a lap dog.

Duke was The Boy's dog...brought back from the North Pole when The Man and I took his list to Santa back in '95. But really? He was The Man's dog. They were inseparable. Dutch was also bought for The Boy in '97, but other than occasionally sleeping with him...and knowing where his gravy train was, he is my dog. It's funny how dogs pick their 'people.'

Reality hit me the other day when I was sitting in the family room and The Man was upstairs cooking. Dutch woke up and struggled to climb the steps. It was like a slap in the face.

I really prefer living in denial....it doesn't hurt as bad.