How old is too old when you are a dog?

Loudon wears his party hat at the dog birthday party.

Apparently 16 isn’t too old because my dog Nipper, a Border Collie-Husky mix, just turned 16 years old (in human years) in September. That’s 112 in dog years – which may seem old for a dog, but he still runs around the backyard chasing squirrels and our other dogs.

To celebrate his 16th birthday, we invited all of the neighborhood dogs over for a Dog Birthday Party. We invited Ada, Rudy, Daisy, Loudon, Shadow, Buster, Penny and Willis. All the dogs received an invitation to the party. When they arrived, they all received a party hat; but most of their humans wore the party hats because they wouldn’t stay on the dogs.

For games at the party, we played, pin the letter on the mailman and a stick relay. The winners received a paw-print dog-treat sucker to eat. All the dogs seemed to have fun and most got along great. There was some growling, but that’s normal when you get that many dogs together.  All the dogs that came to the party brought Nipper a gift! When the dogs left the party, they all received a “treat bag” with dog treats inside. 

I hope Nipper gets to see another birthday next year. I plan to make it bigger and better! He’s “Nipper the Wonder-Dog!  The best dog ever!”

Olivia Langer, fourth-grader at Westerly Elementary

I am 9 years old and live in Bay Village.  I love dogs and hope to go to Ohio State University Veterinary College to be a veterinarian one day.

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Volume 4, Issue 22, Posted 7:38 PM, 10.30.2012