Methuselah’s dog

The photo above shows the do-it-yourself home health maintenance kit for our dog, Akela. She gets very good care. The vet said she’s in remarkably good condition for her age. She failed to mention, however, that she (the vet) is in remarkably good fiscal condition because of Akela. The darling dog and Raven, the precious cat, recently returned from the vet, having been checked out, tested, and immunized and leaving us $633 poorer. Akela, ancient as dirt itself, should qualify for Medicare. She now gets four pills twice daily plus the occasional injection in order to make her into, in dog years at least, a good challenger for Methuselah’s record longevity. Our vet recently studied to be a dental care expert, so suddenly she noticed a startling buildup of tartar on Akela’s teeth, something that should be taken care of very soon, she said. I’m glad she didn’t notice that the dog is near deaf, or we could be looking at a $40,000 cochlear implant. As for the cat, he weighs too much. Good. I can cut down on the cat food, save some money, and put it toward the dog’s longevity trust fund.