On Saturday the 20th of July, Lucky will turn 7 years old. In a couple of weeks, we'll have been living with him for 6 years. Those years have flown by, and not once have we regretted our decision to adopt Lucky. These have been very happy years, The Lucky Years, as we already call them.
No one ever knows how long they have to go. Lucky is related to our first Ridgeback, Truman, who lived to the age of 11.5. But Lucky is considerable bigger than Truman was. As such, we've always been prepared for the possibility of accelerated ageing. Sadly, Lucky is showing the signs.
He's quite grey around the muzzle and under his eyes, eyes which are starting to cloud over. His energy levels aren't anything near what they used to be, and he sometimes stumbles over nothing in particular. It's sad of course, but the only thing we can do about it is to make sure he has the very best veterinarian care, which he does. He is on a bit of medication for nothing serious, and he takes a daily supplement called YouMove, which I think is helping.
We learned one very important thing from Truman. That is to really take each moment of a dogs life, and live in it with them. This is how we've always been with Lucky. On our walks, in particular, our attention never strays from him for a minute. He doesn't get up to mischief, we just like watching and interacting with him. I know from experience that these are the times that are happiest to look back on later.
Some people might think that being consciously aware of his life limit is sad, or unnecessary. I think knowing that our time will end makes these times, The Lucky Years, more precious.
