The 11-year-old dog tries to keep up as the 3-year-old pup growls playfully and romps around the house: “Let’s wrestle! Let’s run! Let’s be pals!”
After a few minutes, the old girl leaps into a chair where the young’un can’t reach, then comes over to the love seat for some attention from me.
She pants as I rub her and say, “That’s my good girl,” and the younger pup sulks across the room, eying the two older beasts with suspicion. Why do the man and her older sister move about so slowly? Don’t they know there’s a world out there to run around in?
Yes, little one, we know, and nature has slowed us down, but at this more leisurely pace we can see and feel the details of this grand world more easily — the chickadee foraging at the bird feeder, the squirrel dancing from branch to branch, the freshly fallen snow dusting the ground and adding a layer of beauty to the landscape — frosting on a plain cake.
Dejah steps down, and Summer immediately brings over a toy to resume the tug of war. Now it’s the old one growling playfully. She is a good sport.
