On October 5th my dog Bitsy turned 13. We’ve been through a lot together: my parent’s divorce, moving three times, she was even in the car with me when I spun out of control on a rainy night on Highway 27. We made it through all of those things and more, and I’m happy to have had her with me.

She was the runt of about seven other dogs. She also had the most attitude. She would stand in the middle of the food dish and growl at all her brothers and sisters, eating until she fell over. She was so tiny that she was instantly called “Itsy Bitsy” and the name stuck. When I took her to Laurelbrook with me, she was the first house dog I’d ever had and I quickly learned that it’s not easy to have a puppy in the house. She destroyed my expensive Greek Bible and chewed through several leashes. She was always in the trash and loved to roll in dirty laundry. Once, she got down a pack of M&Ms and instead of eating them, she just licked the candy coating off and left the chocolate.

She started showing her age when she turned 12 and this year she started to noticeably slow down. She can’t jump on the couch anymore, so I have to help her. She’s lost most of her hearing, which makes calling her difficult. But she’s still very active and loves to chase her ball. She loves to go for walks and she still ABSOLUTELY loves to chase cows! But more and more her favorite hobby is napping, and that’s OK with me. She enjoys her senior dog food with glucosamine (for healthy joints) and the occasional treat of canned dog food mixed in. Her teeth are still very healthy according to the vet, and she’s not missing any except for the one she knocked out when she was a puppy trying to carry around a heavy rock (she still thinks large rocks are turtles!)

I’m hoping she’ll be with me at least a couple more years, but I find myself preparing and thinking about the day when she’ll be gone. Then it occurred to me that I should just enjoy her now and live in the present. She doesn’t care about getting older and neither should I. She’s been a blessing to me. She loves when I come home and licks my face. She lays at my feet when I’m at the computer. And she still begs with her head on my knee when I’m eating on the couch.

I’m going to stop thinking about her being gone and start thinking about her being here. And I’m going to try that with the humans in my life. None of us have much time in the grand scheme, so I’m going to make that effort to spend time with people (and dogs) while they’re here. And I might start chasing the cows too!