The Thinning of the Pack

 Sadly, today our almost 20 year old dog  (or as I liked to say, our 137 year old dog) died.  His name was B.B. (after B.B. King) and he slipped very peacefully away on the front porch, a place where he had passed many happy hours.  He was in good shape up to the very end, still able to hop up the stairs, although occasionally confused by what stairs were for.   He will be missed by man and dog alike, and his funeral was marked by both crying and barking.

I have had 2-4 dogs my entire adult life, and over this past decade we have had the same trio.  They have been a pack.  The thing that I love about dogs is how they look out for their human pack mates--they know us and love us more than we know and love each other, and that can be a real comfort on sad times.  The thing that I have learned is that they also  really look out for each other.

B.B. was an old dog for a very long time.  He had the opportunity to develop chronic illnesses for which there was little to be done--he had a chronic ear infection for the last five years, and every day, morning and night, our other two dogs would vigorously lick his ear until either they were convinced they had made headway on the problem or B.B. stopped allowing them access to his ear.  My husband has looked at me several times over the course of these medicinal administrations and noted that while he would do many things for me, licking my ear infection clean was not amongst them.  They groom each other in hard to reach places, and they provide each other vital companionship when humans are unavailable.  Two of our children have dogs, and they come over to our house to avail themselves of the pack life that we can provide.  They were all a big comfort to me on this sad but inevitable occasion.  Thank you Nick, Ram, Leila, and Cedric for the joy you bring to my life, and farewell B.B.