Well, if that ain\u2019t a humdinger. To find out \u2014 on a bag of dog food of all places \u2014 that your pooch is a senior citizen. That\u2019s what Purina says about my dog, Chase. She is at least 8 years old, and that must make her an old fart. <\/p>\n
Dog food manufacturers, and maybe others, seem to think that 7 years or older starts the beginning of the \u201cage.\u201d To me that\u2019s when dogs are in their prime. <\/p>\n
For that matter, if you apply the 7-dog-years-to-1-human-year ratio, any of our breed 49 or older is also a senior, and needs to be put on this specially formulated diet with added fiber, crude fat and chicken by-product. Hate to be the bearer of bad news. <\/p>\n
I found this all recently while researching dog food. I wanted to make sure I was feeding Chase the best there is. I wanted food that was good for her joints, would keep her sturdy and strong, would make her coat shine like a newly polished car, wouldn\u2019t let her eyesight sag and, most importantly, wouldn\u2019t make her throw up all over our rug like the last time we switched food. Personally, I found her food a little grainy, and it didn\u2019t go well with milk.<\/p>\n
So I researched, and WHAM!<\/p>\n
Chase?!? Old?!?<\/p>\n
Naw. that dog has more energy than shaken plutonium and can still drool with the best of them. <\/p>\n
Yet, Purina calls her a \u201csenior dog.\u201d Iams calls her \u201cactively mature.\u201d Actively mature? Is that opposed to \u201cLazy lard-butt immature\u201d or \u201cself-important, upwardly mobile senior\u201d? Maybe \u201cUpper crust unwieldy snorts-too-much elderly\u201d?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s not sugar coat it. Why not call the food \u201cGrandpa nuggets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fine, she\u2019s getting up there in years, but I don\u2019t want my dog getting old, or some dog food company telling me it\u2019s happening without my permission. I can\u2019t picture her one day with a walker and fake teeth talking about the \u201colden\u201d days when squirrels used to slip her money so she wouldn\u2019t chase them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tell you, sonny, it was a much safer world back then. You could use the bathroom wherever you wanted and nobody made you pick it up in a plastic bag.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s still so energetic and spry that most people often mistake her for a puppy. Well, until they get close enough to catch a whiff of her breath, or she curses like a sailor. <\/p>\n
I always pictured her one day taking care of me. That she would help me down the steps at my house when I\u2019m older and hold my arm for support. Then she would catch sight of lizard, leap over the railing, and leave me to fold up like a wrinkled shirt. <\/p>\n
By no means is she ready to be put out to pasture. She can still leap higher than I can, run faster than wild horses and in defense of her math skills, she has never once been audited by the IRS.<\/p>\n
But there is a bit more gray in her face and she spends more of her time doing crosswords these days. She does like to take her dinner earlier in the evening. <\/p>\n
Oh, it\u2019s not easy watching anyone grow older, and no easier when it\u2019s a pet. She\u2019s my kid! She can\u2019t be older than me, and maturity? I\u2019ve seem dead leaves that are more mature than she is. <\/p>\n
We asked our vet, Dr. Nicholas, whether we should start doing anything different with her as she ages ungracefully. Maybe not let her jump so much, or stop her from climbing trees.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s better to wear out than to rust out,\u201d I think he said, and it\u2019s good advice for all of us, dog included. <\/p>\n
So we\u2019ll switch her to the \u201cseniors\u201d diet and wait for her AARP card to arrive in the mail. Aging is something we all have to come to terms, and we\u2019ll do it with her, too. But watch out lizards, that dog still has a lot left in her yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well, if that ain\u2019t a humdinger. To find out \u2014 on a bag of dog food of all places \u2014 that your pooch is a senior citizen. That\u2019s what Purina says about my dog, Chase. She is at least 8 years old, and that must make her an old fart. Dog food manufacturers, and maybe others, seem to think that 7 years or older starts the beginning of the \u201cage.\u201d To me that\u2019s when dogs are in their prime. For that matter, if you apply the 7-dog-years-to-1-human-year ratio, any of our breed 49 or older is also a senior, and needs to be put on this specially formulated diet with added fiber, crude fat and chicken by-product. Hate to be the bearer of bad news. I found this all recently while researching dog food. I wanted to make sure I was feeding Chase the best there is. I wanted food that was good for her joints, would keep her sturdy and strong, would make her coat shine like a newly polished car, wouldn\u2019t let her eyesight sag and, most importantly, wouldn\u2019t make her throw up all over our rug like the last time we switched food. Personally, I found her food a little grainy, and it didn\u2019t go well with milk. So I researched, and WHAM! Chase?!? Old?!? Naw. that dog has more energy than shaken plutonium and can still drool with the best of them. Yet, Purina calls her a \u201csenior dog.\u201d Iams calls her \u201cactively mature.\u201d Actively mature? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}