Happy Belated 18th Birthday, Jenna!

Heartbreaking Update: We said goodbye to our sweet, beautiful Jenna on September 3, 2014.

To say the past year with Jenna has been challenging would be an understatement. She’s always been a wonderful, loving, and loyal dog, but the aging part has been really tough on both of us. Every morning when I get up there is usually a soiled bed or carpet that needs to be cleaned and since walking and mobility are difficult for Jenna she needs to be carried up (and sometimes down) our outside stairs. Luckily there are only five steps to climb and her very petite frame makes it easy on my back when I need to scoop her up and bring her inside. I’m not complaining, really I’m not, but some days are more of a struggle than others and it can get emotional at times. One day recently, though, we had a reason to celebrate because Jenna hit an age milestone that even her veterinarian finds amazing. Last weekend the sweetest dog you’ll ever meet turned 18 years old. That calculates to somewhere around 104 “human” years and gives her the impressive honor of being her doctor’s oldest patient, which he and I both think is pretty darn impressive.

A much younger and more lively Jenna – age 3.

On her 18th birthday she enjoyed a Mintie chew and a Yoghund frozen yogurt, which are two of her favorite treats, and spent most of the day lying around the house. I’m pretty sure if I reach the age of 100 that’s all I’ll want to do, too. The celebration was a bit short-lived and we were brought back to reality when she started to have some trouble breathing through her nose and found ourselves at the veterinarian’s office yesterday. Without doing a lot of expensive diagnostic tests Dr. B could only guess at what could be wrong. It is either a simple infection that will clear up with an antibiotic or there is a growth that would have a much different outcome. We came home with an antibiotic and instructions to see if there’s any improvement after a couple days. The next 48 hours will be rough to say the least, but rather than dwell on the “what if” scenario I would love to focus on the fact that Jenna has lived an incredibly long and happy life and was even recently featured in a special article over at TheMutt.com that honors Jenna and two other very sweet senior dogs. I hope you’ll go and check it out!