[nagdu] Middle-aged Ben

[Tami Kinney]

I thought I was the only one to get all sappy sometimes about Mitzi's
impending old age. /lol/It's one thing to be aware that your guides
prime years are few in human terms and that in time you will be walking
with a different guide. But for me, when that awareness floats across
the surface of my mind, the emotions and more irrational corollaries
seem, I dunno, overwrought. /smile/ I like to think of myself as having
some claim to sound mined and judgment. 

I don't remember ever feeling the awareness or the emotions it brings so
strongly with my beloved pets, horses, whatever. And really, I Guess,
with Mitzi, it's the end of her career that cases the feelings of
trepidation and, well,whatever it is. Since she's my first guide, I
probably find that great unknown of her retirement and replacement with
some dog I've never even met yet scarier -- or at least more daunting --
than I might with my next guide. And the guide after that... I now know
plenty of people who have experienced the retirement of a guide and the
career of a new one, some of them multiple times. Clearly, they survived
to tell the tale. /smile/I can't imagine that that facet of guide dog
use every gets to be old hat, but it's not quite the end of the world
that I sometimes think it will be. /smile/

The up side to the awareness that this part of my life and Mitzi's won't
last forever does give me a greater appreciation for her, for our work
together, even as I go on with just taking things for granted. It
reminds me to just take a quick mind break to savor the wonders and to
be more patient with those little faults of hers that I have learned to
adapt to and also take for granted now. /smile/ At 5, she is who she is.
Some days, she's going to be annoyingly sniffy, so I just have to be
aware and deal with that, which is now habit for me. I get the
impression she takes my faults in much the same way. /lol/ So the
knowledge of future change and sadness makes me more in tune with the
joys. See? Now I"m getting sappy the other way. /lol/

Anyway, I'm glad to hear others sharing their similar thoughts and
feelings about that. I feel much better knowing I'm not quite as cracked
as I sometimes lead myself to believe I am. /grin/

Tami

On Sun, 2011-09-25 at 04:28 -0600, Criminal Justice Major Extraordinaire
wrote: 
> hi, Cindy, Tracy, Tami and all,
> Despite that Odie will be an eight year old and third year senior, I just 
> don't like to think of him aging in that way either.
> He still behaves like a one-year-old pup and it's fun to see him in that 
> way.
> Dale and I both figure he wants to try and stay in that manner like a large 
> human boy.
> He's becoming more sneakier than ever and tries to see how sneakier he can 
> get.
> Does he ever forget that his toe nails give him away???
> He probably doesn't think so.
> Despite that his toe nails are clipped monthly and because of the hybrid in 
> him, they're really thick and do curl after a while.
> Bibi and Odie
> the happy spirited bounty labra wolf 
> 
> 
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