But – as someone else said (CometDog) – as I am about to hit 50 !! (OMG) – there are MANY, MANY things that I can no longer do –

 

I can do more than you - 'cause you're almost 50 and I'm not!  Tee hee hee! 

No offense the ball players out there - but I think old age doggie ball players is a bonus for us humans!  I hated that darned ball!  I wanted to destroy all 35 of them laying around the house and under the beds!  No one can ever tell me Comet didn't have retriever in her - the second she saw a ball she went into obsessive compulsive mode!  She wore out a trail of grass from bringing the ball back and forth to the back porch.  We would sit and she'd run far out and turn around and wait.  I'd throw her fast pitches and line drives and she loved it! (it would nearly knock her off her feet - but she loved them fast and straight) 

She doesn't play that much with the ball either.  But when she does, she's smarter - she'll go out a little bit, we'll throw it and then she'll drop the ball and Rocket will bring it back.  Sadly Rocket hardly gets a turn - he's the ball boy!

Maggie moo wrote:

One thing that I didn't get from my vet was the support and advice that is here at Tripawds.. I didn't find this site until two months later. 

I hear ya!!!   It's great that you did find us! 

I had a long 10ish years without support!  That first TPLO knee surgery almost did me in mentally!  I think my vet thought I was losing my mind!  I was!  I had a 2 legged dog for 12 weeks!  I just spend thousands of dollars and couldn't let her use the 3rd leg and no one understood my dilemma!!!!  It was rather embarrassing to tell a regular doctor that I am having anxiety attacks because of my dog and having to carry her every where and worry non-stop!  I couldn't put her in a wire crate because I was afraid she get her gimpy paw caught in it. 

But the second one was better - I discovered soft sided crates and we made her a rolling crib that she lived in.  I just wheeled her from room to room.