Maggie and her Sheep
Maggie is 14 now, a little tottery and hard of hearing. Her hips ache and she has trouble swallowing sometimes (due to an old stick-fetching incident) but when she is outside with her sheep, you'd never know. She bounds along before us, pacing the fence line with that infamous border collie "eye", all business as ever. Later, of course, she collapses under the coffee table, barely able to walk. But she wouldn't have it any other way.
She gets confused sometimes. Once, she wandered across the road and forgot where she was. She had such a look of relief when I came to fetch her, gave a sort of "Oh, I'm with you!" jump and ran home.
Old age, as they say,is not for sissies. But we can all learn a bit from the stoic way our Maggie faces her new challenges.
Maggie and Luka
2 comments:
That brought tears to my eyes as I was looking down on my own border collie, Sara.
Me too - as my sister's ancient husky died today in her sleep. Not that that is going to happen to maggie any time soon - but - it happens. I myself have a decrepit black male cat - who has an old hip injury and is finding it harder and harder to get around. Today I found him stuck to a blanket, mostly on the floor, but somewhat suspended from the bed. He had been there for some time.(His claws don't get worn out - because he doesn't do much with them). I imagine he was thinking that the blanket he loves so much was going to be the very thing that ended him. If I hadn't finally gone to see what the thump and racket was - at least 45 minutes after hearing it - he would have been there for a long time. Old pets are still loved pets and they don't seem to be phased by their decline.
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