Struggling to get up

THIS IS THE YOUNG DOG I REMEMBER. I WISH
LADY COULD HAVE STAYED YOUNG FOREVER.

Sometimes Lady struggles to get into the floorboard of our car, and today she struggled to get up when I entered the hallway of our house. Her hind legs quivered, and it probably took her 10 seconds to stand.

But once she got up she was OK. When I went down the basement steps, she went ahead of me. And when I opened the cage, she went out into the yard.

Lady's a mixture of old dog and tomboy. Sometimes she'll struggle. Other times she'll run and play.

Recently, a friend of mine and I were talking at the dog park, and we looked around and saw Lady running toward us. Joe was shocked and said he'd never seen her run before.

Sometimes I'm shocked when she runs. The other day, we went to the big-dog side of the dog park. I was sitting there reading, and I heard a dog running hard toward me. I looked up, and it was Lady, breathing hard. She veered to my right and went behind the bench.

Lady's getting old — she'll be 14 this year — but she still has a spark of youth. Still, I hate to see the weaknesses and struggles.

Note: Now she's back in the house, back lying in the hallway.

Note: She passed on Sept. 17, 2016, and now we have a beagle, Dixie.

• Woof! (translation: Go away, kid; you bother me)

Contact: I can be reached at tgilli52@gmail.com or nc3022@yahoo.com. Also, my Twitter handle is EDITORatWORK.

Other entries from The Dog Blog

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2015)

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• 13-plus years with my dog Lady

• OOH! OOH! The stereophonic huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

EDITOR@WORK blog entries

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

• Rookie mistakes for magazine writers

Blog entries from The Auto Racing Journal

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing

More blog entries by Tom Gillispie

• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie

• Good Samaritan

• The PRESS cap and my friend Mike

• Watching TV

• No luck with Billy Sims

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer outta there!