Suddenly, in the matter of just a few days, my Regina has become very old. She has a palsy and tremor in her legs, is ever so slow to rise from the floor and is having potty issues. I am very sad. I know that pets age and that they love us dearly but are only with us such a seemingly short span of years. Now, I watch her decline and must nurse and care for her as she has done with me these last 12 or so years. I do not even have any idea how old she is but I remember the day she came to stay with us, bounding in the front door wearing a silly, bright scarf, bringing a favorite toy from her foster home. She is deaf now but I still talk to her as if she hears me. She just stares into my eyes and watches me speak. When my lips stop moving, she just goes about her day. She is always ready to be with me to be my companion, to just lay near me as I work, to hover nearby in the house in case I call to her, a  voice she no longer hears. She understands me, my shortcomings, my personality that is at once expansive and loving and still, quiet, ignoring everything and everyone. She has been my friend, my companion who finds absolutely no fault in me, my accepting and true friend. I love this old dog.