Keep On Rolling, Just a Mile to Go

The rain came pouring down this morning, and with it came a little friskiness from Kirb. When I came outside, he paced around and insisted I get out a tennis ball for him. Now mind you, he hasn’t chased a tennis ball over the ground for nearly a year. So I got one out and rolled it out behind him. He picked it up, then stiffly walked out into the rainy pasture.
 
No big deal, maybe, but for him it kind of is. For years, Kirby has walked literally hundreds of miles with us around this field, but as he has aged and stiffened, he simply doesn’t want to walk it anymore. At one time, because he is such a creature of habit, he had worn paths where he walked in the exact same line every time he circled the field. Today, the paths are regrown with grass, and there’s no indication of the trails he used to make.
 
So why the spunkiness this morning? Outside of The Big Man, who knows? What I want to believe is that this dark, rainy morning reminded him of those cold, wet, black mornings when we circled this field before heading out to work. It did feel familiar, even if he had to stop a couple of times today to rest up before continuing.
 
Kirb used to hike with us sometimes over 15 miles in the mountains. Our field is ¼ mile around, and some days now that is too far for him to go. But today he did it…and later he walked the ½ mile around the Salem dog park at Minto Brown, and then took a swim in the Willamette. He’s crashed right now beside my chair, but for a day he was King.
 
We simply enjoy every day we have with him now.
 
Almost every thing I do these days I can relate to a Grateful Dead song. This one falls into the lyrics of “Jack Straw”:
 
“Keep on rolling, just a mile to go…
keep on rolling, my old buddy,

you’re moving much to slow.”