What sense does it make for a 77-year-old to get a puppy?
None.
If the pup lives to age 13 - not an unusual age for a dog - that 77-year-old will be 90.
Even if he lives that long, will the old guy stay healthy enough to feed, walk and otherwise handle the dog? What will happen if the old guy dies before the dog does?
Those questions are imponderables, so I didn't ponder them. I thought there was a decent chance that the love, energy and activity of a puppy-growing-into-a-dog would help keep us young, so we shut our eyes to the obvious difficulties and made the leap.
This is the story of Cokie, named for the late, internationally acclaimed journalist Cokie Roberts. We'd committed to buying her as a pup three or four months before anyone had heard the word "Covid." So, she really wasn't a "pandemic puppy" - one of those acquired by folks looking for a diversion during the long lockdowns - but she certainly ended up filling that role.
The story takes the form of a diary that begins before Cokie was born and ends as she is turning four-ish, still alive, still irrepressible - this is a dog book that doesn't require a box of tissues for the final chapter.
So, come join us as we share her adventures.
* * * *
Tom Hudson is a retired lawyer, a Master Gardener, a dog lover, and writer who lives the warm half of the year near Annapolis, Maryland and the cold half at Pawleys Island, South Carolina with his wife, Lily Grace, and his two dogs, Jacob and the heroine of this book, Cokie.
He advises that if you are no longer a spring chicken, and are considering getting a dog as you join the ranks of the more senior, you should read this book first. It will either give you serious second thoughts or convince you that nothing could be more fun than a puppy to help you grow old without growing old.
So, sit! Stay! Then read.
