My dogs are 13 and 8. Jack is bowed of back and slow. Brodie can be fast, but knows where her body ends and yours begins.
Our neighbors have a 9 month old chocolate lab. He's huge. His name is Rocky. He barks all day when they are not home, which makes me sad, that he hasn't figured out that it is okay to be alone. And he is hyper. Super hyper.
Yesterday when Geoff and I got home from a Boy Scout event, Rocky came running around the car to meet us. I couldn't hear his owners calling for him, and they weren't running behind so I was slightly confused. Rocky ran in circles as Geoff and I tried to grab him.
And he crashed into me full force, whole hog, freight-train speed of big brown dog in white snow and ice. The fact that I didn't go flying and land on my face is a sheer miracle, a defiance of any law of physics that can have been applied to the situation. He hyper extended my knee slightly, but not so bad that it was the end of the world. It was a pain for a bit last night but I am fine.
I tried to get ahold of his collar but he was like a hurricane. And as quickly as he appeared, he left. He ran around the back side of the house and didn't return. So my guess is Josh or Maureen were out there and he went with them, wherever with them was supposed to be.
There are things you forget when you have old dogs. Very old dogs. Or at least one super very old dog and one who is happy to just chill. You forget that they have energy. You forget that they are needy, and they want to play. You forget that sleeping 20 hours is not normal for most dogs.
We aren't sure how much longer Jack will be with us. He gave us a big scare about a month ago and we thought we would be putting him down. I was surprised he made it into the new year. Brodie probably has a good five years ahead of her if she has a day.
And I'm honestly not in any hurry to get another big huge dog that will knock me on my ass (or try to) anytime soon.
I made that same mistake of not remembering how much activity a new puppy needs.
ReplyDeleteHe's *killing us* and we can't take him anywhere because he hasn't had all his shots yet.
oh the old not yet on the shots... yeah. like when we got brodie and you had to take her because we couldn't kennel her yet and we had to go to the funeral. that was fun.
DeleteHaha, I remember that! When our puppy was eight months old, my friend got a new puppy. Suddenly I had this fresh version of puppy frenzy wiggling in front of me -- it put the eight-month-old version in sharp perpective!
ReplyDeletec, I couldn't stand it before the shots. We started out sticking to the yard, but then decided to lean on everyone else's shots and began taking the puppy around the block.