Jade’s Birthday

We had a lot of reasons to feel grateful over this past Thanksgiving weekend, not the least of which was celebrating our first dog Jade’s eleventh birthday on Sunday.

To our eyes, Jade is a little grayer around the muzzle, a little quicker to tire than he used to be, and more content to flop in his favorite dog bed for longer amounts of time.  But for an eleven-year old Lab mix, he is still in great shape.  He walks with us every day, keeps up with the younger dogs, can catch any treat or ball no matter how bad the toss, and is still agile, fast, energetic, and healthy.  All of which we are very grateful for.  As I often say, Jade is the dog that changed our lives.  If his whirlwind of energy hadn’t entered our home ten years ago, who knows if we would have had all the fun experiences and met all the great friends that we have today.  His energy and exuberance caused us to find new ways of having fun with him, and has led us on a wonderful path that continues to bring us much happiness.

We tried to decide what Jade would like most for a birthday toy.  He loves big, plush toys, which he likes to destroy within minutes, so we decided to let him do just that:

There was indeed a lot to be thankful for this weekend.