Day 278- Zoe

My girl Zoe is getting old. She turned 11 in December. She has these benign lumps on her body. Her muzzle is getting more and more gray.  We’ve had a couple of cancer scares with her with unknown sores appearing on her body, but they’ve resolved and she’s still with us.  

No disrespect to Stevie or, our first baby, Chloe, but Zoe is the best dog ever. She’s so mellow, so undemanding.  She still has puppy-like energy and enthusiasm even though she can’t make it up the stairs as quickly as she used to.  In fact a couple of months ago I had to carry her up the stairs for a few days. Again, no idea what was wrong.  I took her to the vet and got some doggie ibuprofen for her in and in a couple of days she was OK again.  

When we go upstairs at night, Zoe will not go up until I do. If someone else goes up first, Zoe will hang back and wait for me.  If I start to walk towards the stairs, she’ll start up.  But, if I turn around and go back for something, she’ll come back down to make sure I’m coming.  When we get upstairs, she goes right to her bed and lays down to wait for us to get dressed for bed. I’m always first to bed and I’ll lie down to read.  Normally she stays on her bed because she knows after she gets her treat it’s time for sleep.  The last couple of weeks though she has occasionally been sneaking up onto the bed with me for a belly rub which I gladly give her.

Every day I look at Zoe and I’m grateful for another day with her.  I’m the first one up every morning and many times when I go into the bathroom where she sleeps she won’t even raise her head.  Usually she’ll open her eyes and I always keep looking until I see her blink just to make sure she’s still with us.  

It makes me sad to know that my girl is getting old. I take comfort in knowing that Shayna is waiting for her though.  I know it won’t be a very long time and I definitely never want Zoe to suffer.