Li Po

Li Po is getting older. His eyelashes, which we used to let grow out, were long and thick and black and pointy at the ends. That's the Shih-Tsu in him I guess. Well, now they're white. They look as if they've been dusted with powder, especially when he's asleep next to you and you can peer at his furry little face and notice how his once dark lashes now blend in with his white fur.

Li Po's latest hair cut is growing out in all kinds of odd ways. If you get a profile view of him barking, it looks like he has a little white moustache. Since he's going blind, his big brown eyes often have a distant, unfocused look to them. But I like this phase of the fur grow-out. He's fluffy again, but not so fluffy that he starts to stink and get matted and tangly.

Li Po may be going deaf as well, because more and more often, you can walk right into the house, right up to where he's napping, before one eye pops open, then the other then he's all over you barking and scampering. Before he did the barking and scampering bit immediately. Before you were even inside he'd be throwing his full weight against the screen door, like a SWAT team trying to bust in, or in his case, out. He still does his doggy-dance when he recognizes me, though. He rushes up barking, tail swooshing, and buries his nose in my pants. Sniff, sniff, sniff. Where have you been? Ah, I smell a car, an office, a cat --- what?! a cat?! And when I try to pet him, he nudges my hand over so he can smell that too. Then there's the long walk up the hallway to drop my stuff in my bedroom, both of us trying not to trip over each other.

Li Po's nose is as strong as ever. It never stops moving and can detect a treat two rooms away.