Growing old with my dog

I looked down at my dog today while I was making breakfast. She was close by, as she always is, hoping to start her day off with a breakfast treat. There was nothing different about the routine, but for some reason, today I saw her differently. For the first time, I could see her old soul staring back at me.

Rivers and I have been best friends for 14 long years.  Together we’ve lived in about 6 different houses with as many different roommates. Then Nate came along and we became a family. Rivers was even the “Bridesdog” in my wedding and felt right at home in a place of honor, on stage with all my Bridesmaids.

Of course, I’ve been noticing for a while that she gains more and more white fur with each day and her love of running at an insane speed has faded. But I just hadn’t seen her age showing through in her eyes like I did this morning.

wedding flower dog. Bride's Dog. For more info about beauty photography, visit byrayleigh.com

Watching her grow old is as endearing as it is scary. I can’t even imagine what my life will be like when she’s gone. I don’t like to think about it at all. But I do really enjoy looking back at all of our photos in my stacks of photo albums and reminiscing about the times we’ve spent together. She’s been a part of so many of my experiences and I’m so thankful to have a visual record of our memories.

A puppy who has grown in to an old dog. For more info about beauty photography, visit byrayleigh.com

Take a look at this photo of Rivers when she was just a puppy in 2002 and a photo from Spring of 2016. I could look at pictures of my fur baby all day long. Ha!

If I were to look through your photo albums, what would I see? 

2 responses on “Growing old with my dog

  1. Andrea schafer

    If you were to see some of my most treasured photos you would see me with my 3 brothers. My family, my extended family was very close when I was younger, we spent every holiday together, and most of the summer.
    You would also see my school pictures, even though they are terrible and awkward those are priceless, I loved middle school, my middle school friends, the first sports I played, and then there are high school pictures, slightly less awkward but still some of my favorites! They remind me of the friends I made, the sports I was slightly better at, the summer I grew 8 inches, my first boyfriend, my last boyfriend that became my husband and father of my children, all the things that made me the woman I am today.
    Then there is the current stage of my life, I have 2 kids and there has not been a day since they have been born that I don’t take a dozen pictures of them, they are always doing crazy & funny things, I also send my husband pictures through out the day of what we’re up to.
    But my most treasured photos are “the last photos” the last photo I have of my grandfather before he passed away, the last photo of my best friend before he passed away, they remind me of everything, the good times, the hard times we got threw together, the best conversations we had, all the times we spent together making memories.

    1. Rayleigh Post author

      Hey Andrea! I’m so glad you take pictures of all those crazy things so you can look back and enjoy the memories!