An Old Soul

Jake one of our black labs is getting old, or rather has gotten old.  We got him from the pound back in November of 2006 (click here to read our blog post about his arrival), and they told us, at the time, that he had already cycled through a few families and was 5 years old.  That means he is somewhere near or past 14 years old, and that's old for a black lab.

He's always had a bad hip, and a few years ago I thought the end was near when he could not walk to the park all one winter.  But he rebounded and out lived Roxydog who did walk in the park all that winter.  And this winter he is still taking short,  slow walks to the park.

Part of the reason he rebounded, and has been doing so well for the last few years, is that we got 2 new dogs.  I think he realized the new dogs, Tank and Sheba, are his replacements in the pack, and he stepped it up a notch.  We also started to let him, and him alone, up on the bed at night.  He has thrived with the extra attention.

But just in the last few days he has lost the ability to jump up on the bed.  And he is too proud to willingly let us lift him up onto the bed.  He walks around the bed looking up, and then when I get off to lift him up he trots away.

He's an amazing dog and it does make me very sad to see him get old.  I plan on appreciating every moment of the rest of his life.  Patrick