Poor Auld Beastie

My poor old doggie. He is 12 yrs old this month. It seems like just yesterday that we were bringing our little piglet home from the 4th of July Amish Auction back in the day (I guess that would have been 1997!).

We have always jokingly referred to him as an Amish dog. He has bad teeth and not such great eyesight. His joints are terrible and he has been riddled with arthritis since he was 4 or 5. Supposedly he blew his ACL at some point and that made his knees worse. It surprised me that dogs have knees...and that they can have a season-ending injuries.

Brutus was a very handsome dog in his heyday. Here is how he looks now:

Not too shabby for a beast who is the equivalent of an 84 yr old man!

Last summer he developed a gianto tumor on his throat which turned out to be the Big C. The vet removed it and told us that he expected one to grow back at some point. It could be 6 months or 6 year for all he knew though. We are coming up to a year from that incident and the beast is still going strong.

Nowadays he spends most of his time sleeping. He is like a thick, black throw rug on my floor! I have been trying to make the most of him these days since who knows how much longer he will be around?

Apparently I'm the only one who feels this way though. The girls are busy planning for our next beast. According to them (and Joe), we will end up with a Welsh Corgi.

Poor, poor auld beastie!