That’s his sheepish grin.  He’s playing it cool, but Sparky is flustered.

Sparky was excited to go for a car ride.  Going down the stairs to the garage, he almost lost it.

A little dog cannot cautiously go down stairs.  It’s a leap, then try to settle into a rhythm.  After the first stair, Sparky was going way too fast.  He misjudged something, and was trying not to face plant.  Like when you stumble, and kind of run it out to avoid looking like a complete dumb ass.

Sparky was fine, and he didn’t fall down the stairs or shit himself, but it was a near thing.

Dogs age faster than people.  If you pay attention, you can see it happening because it’s not as gradual.  Sparky was a senior dog when I got him, but I was older than he was.  Sparky still wanted to do fun stuff.  He chased rabbits.  I was retired and enjoy not having to chase anything.

I’ve noticed that Sparky has ‘missed a step’.  He has footstools to get up on the couch.  He is a unsure how to jump down from the truck.  Sparky and I value self-reliance, so I let him work through his reluctance.

At some point, a person loses functionality.  I can still do all the things, just not necessarily as well.   I’ve got a friend who isn’t 60 years old yet, and can’t go up on a ladder.  He isn’t convalescing or choosing not to go up on a ladder, he can’t.  That’s bleak.

That’s where Sparky seems to be.  He has become older than I am.

He never liked my stairs.  I added those carpet runners to give Sparky some traction.  They snap down, so I can remove them to clean, which that photo shows I should do.

About the time Rusty showed up, Sparky was getting anxious about going up or down.  Rusty was a dog-monkey who handled stairs as assertively as Sparky handles chicken nuggets.  Maybe that undermined his confidence, or it was unrelated.  I used Sparky’s love of car rides to motivate him to keep doing stairs.

Sparky’s near-tumble shook both of us.  After our car ride today, I parked in the aux. driveway so he didn’t have to go up the stairs.  I may be over-protective, but I won’t ask him to use the stairs to the garage any more.

I adore Sparky, and don’t mind accommodating him.  We can go outside and around to get downstairs, or I can use the aux. driveway for car rides.