Amos's Birthday

Last weekend Amos celebrated his 7th birthday, a rather unremarkable event, except for the fact that it was extremely cold and windy (but then again, it is January...). In any event, this milestone prompted me to think of Bentley, Amos' predecessor, whose cancer was diagnosed at the same age. Not that there is any reason to worry--knock on wood, and thanks to previcox, Amos seems to have returned to the days of his spry youth, but seven is seven.

In dog terms, seven is usually a turning point and for large and giant breeds, it can often mean the beginning of chronic conditions. When Phoebe was seven for instance, I activated the cancer clause on her pet insurance since 50% of all golden retrievers get cancer as they age.

All of these musings on aging were further tweaked by the article I read in the recent issue of Philadelphia magazine about the author's decision to put her dog, who was suffering from colon cancer, down and the difficulties of determining "when it was time." I'm not a big fan of the comparisons she draws between pet and human end of life issues, predominantly because I think she is suffering from incredible guilt for perhaps ending her dog's life prematurely, but I do think that she is missing the whole point of making these decisions: quality of life.

One thing I learned about my journey with Bentley was the importance of determining what you perceive to be the components of your pet's best quality of life: walking, eating, going for car rides, sleeping on the bed, going to the dog park, whatever. Because only you will be able to know when illness trumps quality of life and then the decision is less agonizing because it becomes about your pet, and not about you.

Which is why, in honor of Amos' birthday, I urge you to consider what gives your pet quality of life and to rank these attributes in order of importance. I truly do believe that if you know this, that you do actually know "when it is time."

Here's wishing Amos many more years of great quality of life!