Thursday, March 8, 2007

Happy Birthday to Lexie!

This is an appropriate day for me to blog about loving pets. It’s my Lexie’s birthday! She was born on March 8 four years ago, and still acts like a puppy. But the time has gone so fast.

One reason I can’t forget her birthday is that March 8 was also my mother’s birthday. We lost her the same year as Lexie became a member of the family. They unfortunately never met. But it’s a bittersweet treat to be able to continue to celebrate something great on that day each year.

When I told my older son Eric that I intended to mention Lexie’s birthday in my blog, he remarked that she is the same age in dog years as he is in people years. That’s not entirely correct, by today’s standards. Previously, I’d always heard that you calculated dog years as 7 for each human year. More recently, I’ve read that because dogs mature faster than human kids, the newer standard is to count 10.5 years for each of the first 2 years, and 4 years for each calendar year thereafter. That would make Lexie a year older than Eric will be on his birthday later this month!

I don’t know if similar calculations are done comparing life spans of other animals with those of humans, so if anyone reading this is aware of any, please be sure to let me know.

One thing I haven’t done is given a birthday to either my mystery protagonist Kendra Ballantyne, or her dog Lexie. Kendra is 35 years old, and has stayed around that age for the few years I’ve been writing her pet-sitter series. Her Lexie is ageless, I suppose, although in many ways I equate her with my Lexie. So, happy birthday to them both--whenever their birthdays may be!

Lots of people adopt their beloved babies from pet shelters, so they don’t really know their actual birthdates. Does that preclude celebrating birthdays? Who said they had to be on the exact date? Or why not celebrate the adoption anniversary each year? Or both!

Do I have a present for Lexie? Sure, one I think she’ll be especially happy about. An edible one. While in a local mall--in Burbank--I was drawn to the bookstore. Big surprise. And right next door was Woof, a nearly brand-new doggie boutique. I had to stop in and look around. It had really cute stuff, mostly doggy clothing. And treats. And one of the cute cookies baked especially for dogs had a nice, big “Happy Birthday” written all over it. I bought it, of course. It’s large enough that Lexie can share some with Sparquie--whether or not she wants to.

Are we having a party for Lexie? Well, nothing too outré, but I’ll sing a little off-key rendition of “Happy Birthday.” And Lexie and Sparquie will enjoy the cookie.

Happy Birthday, Lexie, and any other pet who shares the date or chooses to!

--Linda

1 comment:

Deb Baker said...

Happy Birthday to Lexie. I'd sing but my Border Collie would start howling for me to stop!