When I Am An Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple

With a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit me
-Jenny Joseph

I don't know whether or not you have heard of the poem When I Am Old, but a lot of woman have and it has touched them deeply. The poem is one woman's musings about how she will live her life when she is old and has reached the "I don't give a damn, I'm doing what I want" stage of her life. This poem has struck a cord with so many women over the age of 50 that a club called The Redhat Society (aka Red Hatters) has been formed with chapters all over the world.

My dog Kate is old. In people years she is about 65 and when I look closely at her face I can see that the white fur of age on her muzzle is creeping up her cheeks and getting closer to her eyes. She is slightly deaf and her eyes are starting to cloud over with the beginning signs of cataracts. She has a hard time getting to her feet after hunting hard and wakes up kind of stiff each morning. She moves a little slower now and her favorite pass time when not hunting is lying on an old pink and purple comforter just inside the garage door watching the squirrels run up and down the telephone pole that stands just on the other side of the alley wall.

She also seems not to listen very well anymore and at first I thought it was because of her slight hearing loss. One day on a walk she found something frozen and what she thought was tasty in an alley and rushed over to pick it up and chew on it. I made her drop it and come back to me and we continue on our way. The next day, on another walk, Kate was walking sedately beside as we headed back home when she suddenly took off down the sidewalk and ran into the street. I chased after her yelling at her to stop but she kept running and disappeared between two houses. I ran after her and just when I reached the first house she came racing back out and stopped in the middle of the street. She had something in her mouth and dropped part of it on the ground. It was that tasty frozen thing she had found in the alley the day before. I again told her no and made her spit out the rest and we continued home. I was shocked and surprised that she ran off like that, she had never done anything like this in her life.

Now I see the problem is her attitude. She has reached the "I don't give a damn, I'm doing what I want" stage of her life. Is there a doggie chapter of the Red Hatters?