I’ve always thought I’d be there to assist with Zoe’s demise. Now I am thinking about mine.
What if we’re on a walk and I collapse? Zoe is 90 in people years and doesn’t know how to dodge a car or cross a street, even on the faded crosswalk I pioneered between city and county.
Do I need to really teach her how to cross the street in traffic? No. She won’t learn on the farm and those pickups go fast out there. Forget here, state law says stop and drivers only pick up speed and honk the horn at pedestrian crossings. Get to that meeting on time, bud, no matter how many seniors, pedestrians and dogs you need to run over. Thanks for your law-breaking nastiness. I hope your vitriol fuels your work day.
My guess is that Zoe would stay on leash and by me until someone takes me to the hospital or morgue. Then, if not the morgue, I need to take care of her. I need alternatives to take care of her if I am incapacitated and more so if I’m dead.
I know she will stay by my side, on leash, until someone finds us and calls 911. Protocol? My husband is ICE. In Case of Emergency. Problem is that when I take the dog out, I never take my phone. That must change.
These years I’ve concentrated on potential Zoe incidents, not mine. What happens if something happens to me and I can’t help her if she doesn’t know how to cross the street and be a Lassie saying “Timmy’s in the well?”
It’s a troubling thought. Perhaps I should teach her how to cross the street by letting her decide, not telling her it’s OK to go. It’s always tough for a “mommy” to let go. Dee
Cooking with Dee 
Zoe is now 90 in “people years” and a certain person has declined to put in maintenance requests for six weeks because I tried to do a favor and several weeks later asked for my property to be returned. It was, and with a nastiness I’ve never seen here in my five years. The lack of maintenance may kill our old dog. If that happens there will be hell to pay.
That said, I was told I need an “intervention” with said person. I didn’t say it but demurred. The news I kept to myself for now is that I don’t work for you. You work for me. Many people have been treated like dirt by this one person, including your own staff who know all the scoops in the neighborhood. Intervention, shmintervention, let’s call the whole thing off.
Again, this person was liable for allowing maintenance requests to escalate for six weeks. She just never placed a maintenance request. On purpose. If Zoe dies it’ll be on her and I don’t know why they’ve been protecting this person’s laziness, rudeness, and unprofessionalism for so long. Dee