I’m not always good at remembering birthdays and anniversaries, so I have a few online calendars to give me hints about the date. Today in my email was a happy birthday wish for my dog Moose from Dogster.com.
I don’t know what his actual birthday is — I don’t know Lally’s birthday either — so we celebrate anniversaries. Some people call them Gotcha Days, as in “this is the day I gotcha.”
Five years ago today, I drove to Ticonderoga, NY to pick up a foster dog named Coyote. I had picked him out from a series of shelter dog pictures because he reminded me a little of my dog Miko, who had died the September before. Miko was a shepherd/husky mix; Moose is mostly German shepherd so they do look alike in some ways.
The five years have been full of changes and adventures. I moved from Vermont back home to New Jersey a few months after deciding that I was going to keep Moose. We were there for three years before picking up and moving across the country to Oregon in 2007.
A friend of mine called Moose “the dog of my heart.” It’s not that I don’t love Lally — because I most definitely do — but Moose is a mama’s boy through and through. He definitely tests my coping ability and stress management skills sometimes with his adventures. Since we moved, I’ve suffered along with him through attacks at the dog park, getting hit by a car, and gastrointestinal distress.
He’s at least nine years old now. I don’t know exactly how old he is since I don’t know his birthday… so he may be closer to ten. I only had three years with my Miko, and Moose is getting close to the same age Miko was when he passed away in his sleep.
We never have long enough with our pets. I’ll make the most of whatever time I have with Moose and Lally, for as long as we’re together. It’s all a pet owner can do, really.