Kabuki

So the title and the picture have nothing to do with one another. I tried to get a few pictures of Dalton this evening, but he was showing the standard Johann photogenicity. Did I just make up a word? I have a Ph.D. so I get to do that. It's one of the many things I learned in graduate school. Not how to make up words, but that I get to do it.

Hmm...where was I? Writing is sometimes like herding cats for me. Or would it be like herding cat? It could be like herding TY. Dog senility is an interesting thing to watch. Not pretty, but interesting. I'd honestly be keeping a straight chain of thought here but I have to keep getting up to make sure he's not stuck behind a door. A closed door I could understand, but he gets stuck behind open doors.

He's an old dog. He's 14 cycles which is something on the order of 105 in dog years. I find the differences in aging between dogs and humans facinating. Dogs have something like 1/8 the lifespan of humans so it makes sense that things might start to go earlier. However, everything doesn't start to go. My guess is that the systems that deteriorate are energetically expensive. I'm basing this on the assumption that natural selection has weeded out dogs with brains that last 50 years in a body that is good for 15. The energy involved is better spent elsewhere. Of course, one could argue that dogs have been selected more by humans than nature. Perhaps the dog brain has adapted to tolerating humans day in and day out without going postal.

So dog brains go early and dog genetic repair systems go early (cancer). Dog bones, however, don't seem to go early. TY has fallen two feet off my bed onto the hardwood floor twice in the last month. If this happened to a 105 year old human, he or she would be in the hospital with one or more broken bones. It seems that bones are somehow less expensive to maintain. I wouldn't be surprised if a vet or bone doctor could blow a bunch of holes in this argument. This is all rampant speculation (translation: making stuff up). Of course, I get to do that (see paragraph 1).

Cathy might be able to tear down the arguement as well. I think she got most or all of the points on the osteoporosis questions on the practice MCAT. That section was an anathema to me. It's also the only reason she tied me on that section of the test...but I'm not bitter.

So anyhoo...the picture is of Dalton working on a project from the Easter basket that Bana and Papa sent him. You can also see bags of treats next to him. The amazing thing about Dalton and treats is that he forgets about them. He'll come home with some big haul of candy from a school event. We will reluctantly let him have one treat a day from his stash for a day or so and then one of us will place the candy in a cupboard. In most cases, he'll forget it's there.

I'm in so much trouble once he learns to read these posts.