Old, Fat and Out of Shape

You all thought I was back to bashing on myself for being disgusting, right?! Oooh, I faked you out! My title is referring to my geriatric dog. Poor thing! I decided to take her out with me to go for a jog, cuz normally she loves to do that. Let me give you the rundown on my dog: she is a Husky/Shephard mut who is 12 years old. She gets little to no exercise in the winter and at any time there is inclement weather, and never misses a meal. She has been prone to stealing bread - chewing a hole in the bag and eating the loaf before going off to hide and give me dejected, guilty looks when I come home. (We now keep the bread in the pantry.) But she really likes to go for walks, and will get excited whenever you say the "w" word and put on your tennis shoes.

Friday evening was no exception, and she was wriggling around in the dance-of-impatience as I put on my shoes. We walked down the block with her walking energetically at my side, and then rounded the corner to walk at a brisk pace for another couple of blocks before I broke into a jog. She loped along beside me for a ways, and then suddenly I noticed that she was behind me and I was having to pull on the leash for her to even keep pace behind me. What the heck?!! Normally she is choking herself on the leash, making terrible-sounding hacking noises because she has strained her windpipe with her collar. So I dropped to a walk for a while then jogged again with the same result. Then I decide to take her old tired self home, so walked and SHE WAS STILL BEHIND ME! She couldn't keep up with a brisk walk! We hit the lawn of the school down the street and she laid down. I thought I was going to have to carry her 50 pounds of furry weight home, but she made it. Slowly. Her poor old legs were twitching when we got home. I joked about it, but I have to say that it made me kind of sad to see the proof of her mortality. My beloved doggie is on the downhill slide. But, I'm still going to take her on walks around the block. I hope someone will do the same for me when I am 87, and not expect me to run a third of a mile.