Retirement

Ah don't we all dream of the day when we can retire. It got me to thinking that my girl Tilley is now retired. Pictured above, this is how she spends alot of her retirement hours. Do dogs deserve to be retired? Do they want or need to be retired? Well that really depends on what the retirement is from, correct? Are they a house dog that sits around all day and goes for a daily walk? Then they don't need an official retirement then.

What I am talking about is retirement from something other than being the family dog. Tilley was a big frisbee dog; she has appeared on Petstar twice, did a movie premier after party in Hollywood which was very cool and pretty much been an amazing athlete. So there came a day when I didn't want to see her land anymore, her health and safety far outweighed my desire to see her amazing air flying. But just like with many people; retirement can be a difficult time. No more frisbeeing, ball retrieving down to a minimum; that can be tough on a gal who thrives on drive.

Every once in a while I would give her a toss just to see if she really needed to be retired; I felt guilty about the whole thing. It was a these few tosses that cemented in my mind that I was doing the right thing. Hard as it may be for the both of us it had to be done. So she went from amazing frisbee dog to ball retriever extrodinaire to now walker. She rarely runs on a free walk now and tends to follow close behind me. She actually tried to go after a ball thrown for another dog the other day and it was sad to watch.

Hey, it's going to happen to us all and as tough as it is for me to swallow she is growing old. So now it is time to give her the golden years she deserves.

Go hug an old dog