My Senior Dog, My Best Friend

By Cal Orey

Simon has been my muse for more than decade

Update: Simon's surgery went smoothly... He passed the blood tests. One small abscess above the back upper molar, and another small tooth--gone. Down to 38--dogs have 42. My boy survived the ordeal; we decided to leave him overnight to have peace and quiet (Aussie is 2 1/2 and will just want to play) in air conditioning. 
Tomorrow my soulmate with paws will be back home and in familiar arms... Exhale. 
Caveat: There was a "power outage" of sorts (which makes me wonder about watching out for what you wish for because it may come true). My computer was down for a day; taken to the computer gurus. Failing hard drive. But no god-like prediction to when it will go to computer heaven. One new computer for the TEA book is being built... A bit sooner than I had planned but the hard drive had three years of mileage on it. It's all about timing... 
And that brings me back to Simon. I got eerie images of him seeing the "white light" to be with my beloved Seth, his Brittany soulmate-- but he wasn't ready to leave Earth. And so we do live happily together as noted below in the original post. Life goes on...

Here I sit next to my 12-year-old Brittany and 2-1/2 year-old Aussie. Older dog, younger dog. I'm overwhelmed with memories, emotions, and racing thoughts. The rational me says: "Put it in perspective. A tooth gone bad, dental surgery on Thursday morning. Done. It could be worse." But as a journalist on the Internet I find myself playing the "what if" game.  I wish there would be a power outage until July 2...

The vet who has raised my pooch since 8 weeks old gave me the odds of a tumor. We agreed. Less than five percent. Overall, Simon is aging gracefully. He's been the healthiest canine I've ever owned and shared my heart and soul.  But at 12 when we are faced with surgery of any kind at this age it causes a reality check. 

None of us get out of here alive. We all have expiration dates. My dog is not immortal... And I am here but distracted. It's a challenge to go through the motions of the day and week ahead without worrying about the end result. Posting pics of puppy to adult and senior dog seem a bit too beginning of the end like the scenes in Marley and Me. 

A complete day, two dogs... balance

So, we wait. Antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, and eye drops for eye allergies. Ironically, my scheduled dental cleaning is this Wednesday but I sense I'm going to reschedule. Too much drama. One procedure at a time. I usually stress about things, like this, that we cannot control. The upside, I caught it...hopefully it's just one molar we've been watching and it will be taken care of. End of story.  And we live happily ever after.