I find it funny that now that I have a lot of time to relax, to think, to read, to simply enjoy the passage of time (THE secret o’ life according to James Taylor), it is overwhelmingly apparent that same commodity, time, is perhaps the most agile thief of all.

I was watching some golf this afternoon, Tiger Woods is playing his first official tournament of the year and it is so evident that time has stolen much from him (yes, injury plays a part, but I’m talking about the little things that are not really that physical…matters of judgement and touch). In earlier years, you would never see him fluff a chip shot or miss putts that us “regular folks” can make most of the time.

Professional athletes do have a relatively short effective “shelf life” at their zenith, but even us “regular folks” have much of their “best steps” stolen away by that same thief. I guess the fact that I’m able to recognize that while simultaneously lamenting it, should be considered a benefit, it means I’ve been around long enough to have it happen “in its time”. I’ve not been cheated with early demise but simply riding the river of time, probably better than many.

That brings me to what really caused these thoughts today. Late in March of 2012, after much nudging, I gave in to the fact that we should get a dog, Sue never had one as an adult and it took me a while (quite a while actually) to come around. So we picked a pig in a poke and sight unseen (other than a picture on the rescue site) we met the rescue bus and welcomed Abbey THE dog….Abbey, who ran out of the house the first day I was alone with her and led the entire neighborhood on a merry chase before our neighbor managed to coax her into her car a few blocks away. Abbey who two days later, snapped the flexible leash when darting off after a squirrel when Sue just let it play out till the end quite the perfect example of the old HS Physics formula F=MA and again had to be coaxed home (this time she ran into our driveway and right into the open car I had. Abbey who pulled Sue down one icy Superbowl Sunday night causing multiple staples in Sue’s head and who again pulled her down another night causing the gas line to the whole how generator to become detached. Abbey who barks at the sound of a bird on a wire (think about that), Abbey who had to be drugged to a fair thee well to make the drive from CT to SC when we moved. Abbey who, though all that, is my buddy.

Abbey is slowing down, and it’s increasingly noticeable. Her back legs are weak and she can no longer hop into the car unaided, she can’t make it onto the bed with a bench to jump to, even with a running start and a rug to grip on the chances are only 50-50 that she can make the leap. Her walks still start out with her excited and jumping up and down (though slipping on floors without carpet as she spins) but the walks are shorter and where once, we had to put the leash on the front of her harness to prevent pulling she now more often than not, ambles along.

It is clear that time, the thief, is lurking around, and while not knocking on the door just yet, has made his/her presence known.