Major Dexter

Folks of the internets (and folks of real life), meet the oldest member of my family, Major Dexter MacGregor.

<----- Isn't he cute!?

Major came to live with us almost 15 years ago. He turns 105 (or 15 in people years) April 14th! He's cranky. He's smelly. He's lumpy. He's more than a little overweight. He's slightly blind. He can't hardly hear. And we love him immensely! Aside from Major's day-to-day ailments he just started his second go 'round with "Canine Geriatric Idiopathic Vestibular Syndrome." I'll spare you the long, drawn out description (unless you like that sort of thing *coughJodicough* in which case you can read all about it here and here) and just tell you that it causes his little head to tilt all the way to the left, he walks in circles, he loses his balance, and he falls over at random moments. (think drunk Fainting Goats.) It's not painful and it's not permanent. Everything we've researched says that most dogs recover in 48 hours to 7 days. It's more of an inconvenience than anything else.

It's been a learning experience for all of us. He has to be carried outside to potty. He has to be carried up and down any stairs. He has to be hand fed because his depth perception is all off. It's also been a little bit of an eye opener as well! We'll all get old someday. We'll all need help doing things that were once easy. Heck, I might even need help eating. Although I'm really hoping my family doesn't try to feed me dog food!

At any rate...it's reminded me to be a little kinder to my elders. Even the furry ones. I'm sure he'll be back to loping across the yard and biting Hank in the butt in no time!