Making Seventy-Seven Look Good

It’s Roxie’s eleventh birthday today and we’re celebrating!

Err, I’m celebrating.

(Jim doesn’t celebrate dog birthdays.)

Where does the time go???

Roxie has accomplished so much in her eleven years (seventy-seven dog years, whew!). In addition to electrocuting herself as a puppy, actually eating a kid’s homework once, getting skunked, eating entire loaves of bread, bags of chocolate*, and part of a container of baking cocoa and living to tell about it, she has also run away for an afternoon (twice), ripped up paper money that totaled approximately $73 for all incidents, rolled in rabbit poo multiple times every summer, destroyed many stuffed animals, scared an infinite number of people with her “I haven’t really been stabbed but I sound like I’ve been stabbed” bark/bay/howl, and created and/or participated in countless other shenanigans.

I should have known, really. When I was trying to decide on which eight-week-old beagle puppy to bring home, I knew all about checking for temperament. Beagles are notoriously active and curious; ideally I would have chosen a puppy that was somewhat docile so we had a chance at a companion that knew how to be quiet and calm every now and then. The problem was, she was so darn cute that while I performed the temperament testing on her, I completely ignored the results that indicated I was bringing home a puppy who would keep things more than interesting for years to come. I remember flipping her over on her back and gently holding her down. A docile puppy would, in this situation, relax and wait for me to let her go. Roxie fought me every second until she wiggled out from under me.

It’s been like that ever since.

And it may just be because I’m feeling sentimental on her birthday (and also because it’s been more than a month since Jim and I spent ninety minutes cleaning up the mess when she vomited ALL OVER THE HOUSE after getting into a bag of Valentine’s Day treats I bought for the boys; worst dog-related carnage ever in the history of the world), but I wouldn’t change a thing.

(Except for that recent Valentine’s Day massacre.)

She may be a horrible listener with a mind of her own who cuddles with me only on her terms and pays attention to me mainly when I have food (especially a bowl of popcorn) in my hands, but I love this dog who still, more often than not, acts like a puppy. She is a great companion and has definitely kept life interesting for the last eleven years. I look forward to what she’s got in store for the next few.

As long as her plans include behaving more than not, which is unlikely because it’s Roxie we’re talking about, but there’s always hope. Maybe.

Happy birthday, Roxie. Extra treats for you today!

*chocolate is toxic for dogs: she got her mouth on it when we weren’t expecting her to be so stealthy and nimble! (I swear she must have retractable thumbs!)