I love dogs just about more than anything else. Well books and dogs/animals are definitely tied for my number one favorite thing. And for the past year and a half, I’ve been lucky enough to be a dog walker and pet sitter to many dogs and cats.

this is poh the dog – he went on several cross country adventures with his owners as a senior pup before passing away at 16 years old.

But one of the things I’ve learned is that while dogs are so much fun, they are a lot of work and a lot of money. And something that people might not think about when initially getting a dog is the idea of taking care of a senior dog. Because bar any sort of unfortunate accident or animal abuse, dogs will get to be a senior and with that, come with a whole other set of issues.

Senior dogs might take more work than when they were younger – they might need more bathroom breaks and might have trouble getting up stairs or into cars. They might have health problems leading in higher vet visits and bills and will probably need to go on a special diet. And I really say might because each dog will age differently and thus have different issues. But senior dogs have so much love and joy to share in the midst of any potential issue.

I say all of this so that if you ever adopt a dog, it’s important to know this and remember that puppies and dogs age just like we do.  It’s not to deter people from not adopting because there are so many dogs who would love a forever home but just something to remember when adopting. It’s a lot sometimes but it’s so worth it to hang out and care for these animals.

On that note though, here are some really cute stories about senior dogs:

• Pet groomer gives senior dogs makeovers so they’ll get adopted
• Here’s what it’s like to live with 10 senior dogs and a sassy rescue pig
• Poh the bucket-list dog succumbs to his terminal-illness on the very last leg of his epic 40,000-mile road trip across North America
• Kids practice reading to shy shelter dogs at Missouri Humane Society