Growing Into His Ears

When Puck was just a young pup, a friend of ours asked, "Will he ever grow into his ears?"  Ha!  

He never did - his huge ears are one of his best features!  Along with his fuzzy bunny butt, of course.  

Puck is a good dog.  He spent so much time with us, traveling, and visiting, that he has pretty good manners, for a dog.  He pays attention to us, so he learned how to fit himself into our lives very naturally.  When he used to travel with us for work during the summer months, people were always impressed that he could be off the leash at our project sites, and would stay right with us as we hiked and worked.  He loved having adventures and would leap in and out of the truck, always ready to go.  He once followed us across a rushing stream and was washed away.  We watched in fear as he was swept farther and farther away before he finally figured out to swim to shore instead of fighting the current trying to swim back to us.  Smart dog.  

Puck hasn't been feeling well lately.  Last week he had a trip to the vet, and for a moment, we thought he might not be coming home.  Thankfully, his blood work indicated that his organs weren't failing, so the vet sent him home with medication for pain and infection, with the warning that if he isn't feeling much better in four or five days, we may need to think about the quality of his life.  

It's hard not to focus on what the quality of my own life will be, without him as my shadow.  I once met a corgi enthusiast.  She was wearing a sweater with corgi's embroidered on it, she had two corgi's on leashes with her, and told me she was the president of her corgi club.  She asked about Puck and when she heard his age, she gave me a look.  She said she had loved several corgi's in her life, and none of them made it past age thirteen.  If the corgi lady is to be believed, then we have been lucky to get an extra two years of good times together.