Oldest Living Dog

Anyone who knows me knows that the love of my life is a dog. She is a beautiful Great Pyrenees, and she loves me so much it’s insane. She jumps on me to hug me, gives me doggy kisses, and nuzzles me with her nose. When she really wants to let me know she loves me she sniffs in my ear. I think the dog is actually the creature that is closest to God, we may have more intelligence, but they have a greater capacity for love.

On March 16, it was announced by The Guinness Book of World Records that a Chihuahua named Toby Keith was the oldest living dog at twenty one years and sixty six day. I haven’t dug much into the story yet but I wonder……does that mean the dog who had been oldest had recently died? So we are rejoicing at the longevity of this dog, but I haven’t had a chance to grieve the loss of the other dog? This is why I quit watching the news, it just moves too fast!

Maggie was an Australian Kelpie that, according to her owner and the website Dogtime.com, lived to be thirty, which would have made her the oldest dog of all time. The owner lost her paperwork, unfortunately, and so *Guinness* cannot accept her title. But I think she looks like a good doggy, so she is Tired Blogger approved.

When I was a teenager, there was a period of time after Dad lost his job, and before the alcoholism had gotten bad, when we were starting to get close. We’d ride around in the pickup after working on the farm, and he’d listen to old country music on the radio. One of the songs I remember from this time was Tom T. Hall’s Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine. I’ve never had watermelon wine, and I doubt I’ll ever have any extensive time with children ever again, but I can attest that a dog (old or not) is often your best companion. They don’t know or care if you are ugly, they are like God in that they look at the heart of a person, and they judge you by how well you pet them, feed them, and call them good doggy. If you accidently step on a paw they forgive you quickly. They can smell when you are upset, and unlike humans they will actually try to comfort you. In this time when the world seems to be falling apart, and my middle age has left me a pretty bleak vision of the world, a wagging tail still makes me smile. Why can’t people be more like dogs?

Can’t teach an old dog new tricks? America for a long time has been a youth oriented nation. In the sixties, and all the way up till very recent years, being old is the worst thing you can be. We all want to be young and hip, listen to rock and roll, have amazing gymnastic sex, and if you lose your hair or get a belly, your basically done.

Google Trends today gave me the information about Toby Keith, but it also had a Senator’s name as trending, and all the articles that Google says are trending are about how this person (no, it isn’t Biden, but I still don’t wanna name them because my point is not to make fun of a politician, I’m just trying to make a point) is the senior senator of their state, and have been around for a long time making history, but they are starting to show signs of Cognitive Age decline. Almost without exception, the articles point out that we now have the oldest Senate in history, their average age is currently 64. What are we to make of this?

When the Clintons came on the scene in the 1990s, they were the fresh, young, hip new kids on the block. They were not Washington insiders, and America was frankly tired of boring old Presidents. We hadn’t had a young President since Kennedy. Now they are the power brokers, and without meaning disrespect….they are old.

So the world wants to know how to keep their dogs living longer, but also we are afraid our leaders are holding onto power too long and no longer have the capacity (saying they ever had it) to actually lead. As always, we want to have our cake and eat it too.

Classic Saturday Night Live Skit where they turn the tables. Reagan was often mocked for being old, and people joked he had Alzheimer’s, this was a brilliant skit where they turned the tables and kind of made fun of themselves. I wonder how many people were both offended by Reagan jokes and “sleepy Joe” jokes?