A Pirate Looks at 50.

or, a Rowdy Bones looks at 7.  Since early this year, it has become apparent that I have been ignoring some subtle signs of aging in my indestructible, tireless cattle dog.  Either a graying muzzle is easy to miss on a red speckle coat, or I've been in denial.  Probably both.

     Don't get me wrong, Rowdy is in great shape, and I am fully expecting at least another 7 years from my little red Bones, given that the oldest dog on record is a blue heeler that made it to nearly 30.  But I think Rowdy has been moving into a different stage of his life, while I've been largely oblivious.  Time for me to evolve along with my dog, I think. 

     We want different things out of life at different stages, so why wouldn't our dogs?  Rowdy has always been a workaholic, thirsty for truly amazing amounts of mental and physical challenge.  My efforts to provide those challenges have taken us on a journey full of new knowledge, new friends, new sports, and we have a busy schedule of activities.  But in recent months (once I opened my eyes to see it) I think he has moved into a place where he'd prefer a sort of active semi-retirement.  We're not anywhere close to sitting in front of the TV at the nursing home doing crossword puzzles - but he's ready to quit his rat race corporate job and open a little bait and tackle shop by the lake, per se.  Maybe even spend a little less effort controlling other dogs' behavior even, hell let's go ahead and let the grandkids run ragged all over the park.  Some other dog can take over as the fun police.  Rowdy is taking much more interest in napping together on the couch, and sleeping in, where in past years he has not been able to lie still long enough to make it through one press of the snooze button.  He seems to be enjoying just being together with me, without doing anything in particular, which is gratifying.  So far this year, while I'm doing yard chores, after a few quick zooms, he seems to have taken over Louie's old job of pruning back plants and weeds, lying in the grass, and generally monitoring the quality of my work.  Apparently he has done such a diligent job with the chipmunks that they are now self-policing.

     For all of Rowdy's hard work, I think he deserves the kind of middle-age-into-retirement he'd like best.  I have a lot of dog activities, between attending classes and workshops as a student, demo dog while I'm instructing, Rally-O, hiking, Agility, Dog Scouts, etc. and Rowdy is my main workhorse.  Long before Rowdy decides that sometimes he'd rather stay home, I want to be able to say OK without there being any pressure to force him to attend the 4th dog event that week.  And that's going to take some doing, to get a dog ready to even begin to shoulder some of the awesome things Rowdy does.  Enter Piper, Rowdy's new apprentice...