What's 10 in dog years?

In a world where people are gunned down simply because of the color of their skin, and others are blown up because of their religious beliefs or ethnicity, a dog's birthday doesn't really rank up there on the global priority list.

But in this case it's our dog, Frasier. And he turned 10 today. So while a day that he probably doesn't think is all that different from any other day isn't worthy of headlines in the newspaper or even a mention in one of my on-air segments (the tech of dogs?) I still think it's worth its own story in the ongoing adventure of our own little family.

That's because in a dog's world, little things matter. Like crazily greeting you every time you return home, even if you come back into the house five minutes after you first left because you forgot your GPS unit. Like scrunching ever closer to you whenever you're sick. Like guarding the patio door for groundhogs, because no one gets between Frasier and his family.

As much as I wish time could stand still, it continues to move forward as much for him as it does for us. Diabetes adds another wrinkle of uncertainty to a life that's had more than its fair share of it. But today we got another day with him, and hopefully tomorrow will be just as charmed. No one ever knows how many days we have ahead of us, but I remain thankful to have learned from a scrappy silver-colored pup how to squeeze the maximum amount of joy out of any given day.

You may not understand English and I may not speak dog, but I'm pretty sure you know how much we love you. Happy birthday, sweet boy.