Claire dog is a teenager
Claire-dog is thirteen and to celebrate, I took her on what will probably be her last longish hike. A few years ago, when I started taking her to Dr. Lori Lutz, Lori questioned my assessment of Claire, because not being able to hike 11 miles is not "slowing down" for most dogs. Now Lori knows me and Claire better so she knows that cutting back to only 6 or 7 miles was a concession to Claire's arthritis. Now we have to make another concession, because clearly 4 miles is too long for my brindle girl. Not only was she stiff and sore Monday from our hike, but she has some noticeable swelling today. Tomorrow we will be visiting Dr. Lutz again and I will clearly need to find a way to leave Claire home for the long hikes and just bring the younger dogs. A sad realization. But Claire still loves her hikes, so we will be doing several short hikes this summer to celebrate that. Given her age, I will take what I can get.