Lucky 13

I am always jealous of people who got to have their dog from puppyhood. Diago was already four and a half when we adopted him and although that is still fairly young for a dog, it was bittersweet because it meant knowing we would not get his whole lifespan to love him. One of the things that seems to come with owning a dog is the anticipatory grief from day one that this creature you love so much won’t be around forever.

Now this is not meant to be a sad post. But Diago turns 13 in a few months and that anticipatory grief has well and truly set in. This is something only other dog owners are going to understand. My whole life, all I ever wanted was to grow up so I could get a dog. So when we brought this guy home 8 years ago it felt surreal, and I’ve never taken this for granted. Life just is better with a dog trotting along beside you. I just wish it was possible to slow time down. Just a little bit because those last 8 years have gone by in a blur, because of all the happiness this guy has brought us.

That’s not to say that it’s all been sunshine and rainbows. Diago is far from a perfect dog. Far, far from it. But we love him regardless. Even if it means never getting to sleep in, or waking up cold in the middle of the night because he’s taken all of the blanket and its impossible to pull it back from under him. Or his incessant need to constantly be trying to find small fury animals to bite and shake. So that we had to set up cameras in the backyard to see what the possums are doing before we let him out at night. Never being able to take him off the leash on a hike because he will try to grab a bandicoot or a quail. The way he herds us into bed when he decides its our bed time, or bullies me into the kitchen if I haven’t started cooking (our dinner, not his) because he never stops thinking about food.

It’s the way the does a deep sigh when he squeezes in between us and finally settles. Or carries his toys back and forth through the house and arranges his favourite ones next to him before falling asleep. The sploosh snort noise he makes when he stops to sniff something particularly appealing. How he starts running around in circles and jumping on and off the furniture when I’ve announced we are going to do an activity that includes him. Whenever things seem impossible, hopeless and unfair all it takes is a moment holding him close and smelling his Diago smell to remind ourselves that we are lucky because at least we have a good dog.