Officially an adult

Today is Brinkley's 3rd birthday, which makes her 21 on dog years, and officially an adult. It seems like just yesterday that she looked like this:

Sometimes I wish Brinkley would revert back to this age, but only for 20 minutes at a time.

Any longer, and I would inevitably be cleaning up puddles on the floor.

You see, when you are married with no kids, you do things like celebrate your golden retriever's birthday every year. Eventually, when human children are in the picture, September 9 may pass as just another day, but for now, we will treat her special on her big day.

I went to Petco last night to get her a birthday present. As soon as I laid eyes on the stuffed monkey, I had to have it. My hope is that Brinkley won't notice the disappearance of this guy if she's distracted by its cousin:

I got this ape free for opening up a new brokerage account about 6 months ago, and it turned out to be the best dog toy ever (not counting tennis balls). Unfortunately, Brinkley expresses love for apes rather ruthlessly. The ape's face was the first to go, then his guts, and finally, his arm was surgically removed last week.

This monkey has no idea what is about to hit him. He's so cute -- maybe

she'll show mercy on the little guy.

Not a chance. Sorry, monkey.

In addition to the monkey, I also made Brinkley one of my signature dog toys: a stuffed fuzzy bone. I ran out of the fuzzy pink fabric that I've made about 18 bones out of so far, so this one is brown. Knowing how to sew has really come in handy over the last few years for 2 reasons: dog toys and shortening pants/skirts/dresses.

Every time I get out the sewing machine, Brinkley sits idly by, awaiting her new toy. There's major disappointment when the end product is actually just shorter pants for her mom.

No disppointment here, though! It feels good to be appreciated by your dog.

Even when I know that the new shiny brown bone will face the same fate as this grimy pink bone, with a corner sewn shut. That's when I'm thankful that each of these toys costs me about 13 cents.


The big finale to Brinkley's birthday was a walk. Not just any walk, though. This was a walk through Tomahawk Creek by our house after 2 days of rain. She had a blast running through the water fetching crab apples. She got so tired at one point that she laid down in the water, nibbling on her apple. Towards the end of our walk, I was horrified to look over and see my 21-year-old dog crouched in the water, going to the bathroom. Number 2. On our hundreds of walks through the creek, Brinkley has never left floaties behind. I couldn't decide if I was more disappointed that my dog doesn't act like a lady, or that I forgot to bring the camera to post pictures of the act to my blog.

I think this act of defiance may have been Brinkley's way of telling us that she is rebelling against adulthood. She believes that multiplying her age by 7 is unnecessary, because she would like to continue to act like a 3-year-old.

So there it is. Brinkley is officially a toddler.