A number of sources say that Labrador Retrievers live about
10-12 years. I adopted Anna on my birthday in 2004 when she was 8 months old.
You do the math. No wonder she is starting to have trouble! If I remember
right, Tuesday night our vet said 13-16 years which is a bit better. Either
way, time is getting short.
Anna has been having trouble with her back legs. She is a
lot slower than she used to be. Sometimes, but not often, she falls. She has
had times when she could not get up for several
minutes. Where she used to love riding in the car, now she just looks at it and
then sadly goes back to the house because she cannot climb in. (Andrew gave her
a boost Tuesday to go to the vet and back). We started her on pain pills. I
deceive myself or she was moving more easily and comfortably next morning. The old girl may have a few more good years.
As a friend said, their short
lives is one of the hardest things about having pets. Although I must say, that I think the
predicament of parrots is sadder. Parrot
people tend to want to get a young one but they cannot usually afford a parrot
until they themselves are middle aged or older.
Parrots live 50 years or more, some even 100. And they bond to their people. Then they are orphaned while they still have
half their lives ahead of them and no one wants them because parrot people want
young parrots. We inherited a friend’s
mother’s parrot once. He was never happy
with us. Turns out I am not a particularly good parrot parent. He
didn’t like me at all. He liked my sons
somewhat. Because of our other pets and
because he was not responsive to me, he had to stay in his cage most of the
time. A dull existence for an
intelligent creature. We were fortunate
to find an educational sanctuary with large cages and other parrots with whom
he made friends. School children loved
to visit him and he would regale them with imitation car alarms. But a few years later, the facility closed
for lack of funding. I don’t know what
became of him or the others. If people
truly love parrots, they would adopt these older orphans and not get young
ones. But I digress.
Most pets live much shorter
lives than humans do. Sad, but I think
it serves good purpose. We learn to love
and to deal with grief. It can help us
when we have to deal with human loss.
Loss of loved ones whether human, furred, feathered, finned, or scaled
can help us realize the importance of relationships. Cherish them and treat them with love while
you have them. Don’t put off the good
times too much, because the time will run out sooner than you realize. Most of all, missing loved ones can help us
think about how important it is to live so that we don’t have to miss them
always but can be re-united and be with loved ones forever. God has promised that families can be
together forever (and I believe also friends of all types). But there are conditions that must be
met. If we do not live righteously and
with love, if we do not accept Christ and sacred ordinances, we have no
promise. I love my family dearly. I want to be family forever. The
Lord has told me how I can. Losing loved
ones in this life reminds me how important it is.
In the meantime I still have my
dog. And my children and my
grandchildren. And some pretty nice
friends. I need to learn to cherish and
enjoy them more. And to live so that
when I am gone, they will miss me at least a little and want to meet again.
