31 years old

A healthy living Web site that my father connected us with - Real Age - connected us with a canine version of the Web site last night. We typed in a bunch of information about our dog's habits and how we treat him. The Web site calculated all of this and said Frisco was "young for his age" - only 31 years old! Actually, he's almost eight and would I think be in his early 50s. And we probably got credit for some things unfairly. We only feed him premium dog food, but that was because for years we also fed him people food and thus gave him pancreatitis, which forces us now to feed him premium dog food only. We only take him out on a leash, but that was after years of occasionally taking him for leash-less walks and - more frequently - letting him outside the front door - which allowed him to attack and maim not one - but recently - two other dogs, which now finally has us never skipping the leash. We have recently turned over two new health leaves. I mentioned that Frisco's Bradenton veterinarian got us to start taking him for dental check-ups, and our now once- or twice-a-year dental check-ups the Web site definitely liked. We ran into someone at Tallahassee's Railroad Square the day after the funeral of our family friend Julian, who had been killed in Iraq, who persuaded us to start using a harness with the leash, which keeps us from strangling Frisco - or causing eventual neck arthritis - when we walk him. One practice the Web site faulted us for was letting Frisco ride in the car on our laps, a practice that could injure or kill Frisco if we got into a car accident. (The Web site plugged placing dogs in doggie car seats in the back seat.) We actually drive Frisco around less now that we don't ever leave Frisco in the car. Doing that even briefly in the Florida heat may have helped give Frisco his epilepsy, and leaving Frisco in an air-conditioned car was bad for the environment (and still dangerous in case the car stalled) and is no longer possible anyway because the air-conditioning is working in neither of the cars we currently drive. (We also got in trouble with the local authorities her for leavig Frisco in the car - with a sweater on in the winter. Because Frisco has separation anxiety, he always looks distressed to people when we used to leave him in the car.) The Web site also noted with regret that Frisco is aggressive towards other dogs and occasionally towards people (including biting me!) and suffers from separation anxiety. What we really need is a animal psychologist! Speaking of a psychologist, there were no questions about where your dog sleeps - Frisco and Stephanie kept me up last night because they hogged all of the covers and Frisco kept me up the night before because I took away his food because I feared we'd be home late (and feared he'd have an accident) and he kept waking me up to try to get me to put his food bowl back on the floor. Frisco and I did get some quality time together this afternoon in our extra (brown) car with me revving the engine while Frisco and I hung out and listened to the radio.