002:365 My Graying Girl

http://www.whoischristopher.com/002365-my-graying-girl/

My dog Molly will be 12 years old in March. She’s always been full of youthful puppy exuberance. The last few years she has begun to slow down a bit even though she’s just as eager as ever to get the ball or go for rides. She occasionally struggles to jump into the car or up onto my bed. She tires more easily when I toss the ball to her and, even though she pushes herself hard, she feels the ache of her age in her bones and joints the next day.

She is almost entirely black with a small white patch under her chin. When she was a puppy the white hairs around her mouth reminded me of the graying chins of older dogs. Last night she was lying beside me on the floor by the couch. As I rubbed her belly she rolled over and I noticed how much whiter the patch around her muzzle had become. Her age is beginning to show.

I used to joke that God and I had an arrangement that Molly would never grow old and would outlive me. She is the sweetest, smartest dog I have ever known. And she’s getting old. The time will come when she’ll be unable to run for the ball or leap into lakes and ponds. Or even jump onto my bed on her own.

I refuse to lament these changes. I will cherish the times when I have to lift her up into the car as much as I cherished the day when as a puppy she first jumped into Kerr Lake to follow me. And when the time comes that the quality of her life cannot any longer be maintained, I’ll love her as she falls asleep for the last time in my arms, never regretting a moment of her sweet life with me.