Rocko sleeping, September 1, 2011
Rocko is still vigilant in his advanced age and likes to make sure everything is safe before he goes to bed. Most nights he just stands on the porch for a few minutes making sure all is well, but every now and then he goes back to the habits of his youth to what we called “patrolling the perimeter”.
On the cooler nights he still likes to get out and walk around the edge of the yard, sniffing where wildlife has passed through during the day. Although we live in the city we still get all kinds of visitors from the nearby park. Squirrels and possums of course, rabbits who see the “Come Live Here” sign in the back yard, but also raccoons, birds, some lizards with blue tails and who knows what else. Rocko checks out every footprint.
There is a motion sensor light on the back porch that comes on when Rocko goes down the stairs (hopefully you saw our early post about Rocko’s really cool stairs). The white fence reflects the light, giving the back yard a soft glow at night.
There are three exit points so no animal accidentally gets cornered by an overly curious Rocko. His days of chasing squirrels are long over but there could be a problem if something got backed into a corner. The most-used exit is behind a giant hosta where the fence meets the garage, leading into the neighbor’s yard. That’s where we got a little bit of video this week as he was coming back up the sidewalk – it’s posted on Rocko’s youtube channel.
You can see that for a senior dog (16 years and 9 months) he still gets around pretty good. We left the natural sound so you can see how peaceful it is. Rocko still doesn’t know that he can walk slowly up the stairs – when the time comes he’ll figure it out.
It was a nice night in the life of a senior dog.