Faded Jeans Living

This is my dog Boris. I think he’s maybe 12 or 13 years old, but not sure since when we got him from the pound they didn’t know. Out of my 3 dogs he use to be the alpha, full of muscles and energy. Now that he’s in his retirement years he no longer is alpha and sleeps most of the days. He gets squeezed to last when zipping out the back door and can no longer go on long walks with the other two dogs.

The other day though I switched it up. I usually have to go on two walks. On short one with Boris, and a longer one with Miley and Dude. We decided we’d all go on a short walk. You have to understand Boris’s walks now are extremely slow and the bad ass prance is no longer and instead it more like a wobble to the point it looks painful…but every day he still gets excited to get out and walk. So what I noticed with my other two is that they adapted quite nicely. They slowed right down to his pace and kept turning around and checking on him. And for Boris I think he enjoyed being back in the pack.

Watching this made me think. In general in our culture we tend to split the young from the old. I think a lot of it is because we think the younger ones don’t have the time, patience, or we just don’t want to “burden” them with the process. As we turned back onto my street and were heading home, I thought this is good for my other 2 dogs. This is real and one day they too will become seniors. It’s good for them to learn patience, empathy, and understanding. In the end they all adapted and enjoyed themselves.

We can learn a lot from dogs,

Dwight