He's ready for kindergarten

Dinner is not served
London, ON, May 2011

This is where my wife found the dog when she came home from school one fine afternoon. He's quite the vertical operator, scaling the table if he finds a chair even slightly out of place. He's done this more often than we care to admit. Silly boy, however, is unable to get himself down once he gets up there. So we're not entirely sure how long he spent up there before Debbie rescued him.

Well, she snagged this picture on her BlackBerry before she rescued him. Posterity rules, y'know.

Crazy puppy turns five today. He's technically not a puppy, but we don't let that sway us. He's our puppy. Always was and always will be. We hover over him with worry - the diabetes and more recent infection have turned him into the canine equivalent of a needle-stuck junkie - but he's still that crazy ball of fur we rescued all those years ago. It was really only a little over four years, mind you, but it seems like he's been a part of us forever.

I'd be lying if I said I'm not worried about what the future holds for him. He fights the insulin injections like a championship wrestler, his sugar levels are still wonky and rustling him from a deep sleep can be a more than a little challenging - and frightening - some days. I don't know how many more birthdays he has in him. But whatever days we're given, we'll treasure them.

I'm heartened by how the kids have been since he first got sick. They play with him just as they always have. And instead of merely paying lip service to the feeding-and-walking routine, they've stepped up. Noah takes him out back. Zach feeds him and helps distract him at injection time. Dahlia makes sure he gets enough water and playtime. If they harbor any fears about their little buddy, they don't show it.

In so many respects, dogs echo humans. There are no guarantees how many birthdays they - or we - receive. All we can do is squeeze the most goodness out of the ones we've been given. Looking at our puppy in the middle of my remarkable family tonight, it's clear we're all doing just that.

Your turn: How do you make the most out of a given day?