Hope everyone had a great Fourth!  Mine turned out to be more relaxing than anticipated.  The scorching temperatures—102 degrees—kept us from attending the annual concert and fireworks display in our area—just too scary hot to venture out into an open field for five hours.  We kept it low key and indoors, celebrating the day with family and marking a major milestone.  Two of our three pugs, Max and Maggie, turned 15 amazing, remarkable years yesterday.  Seems like just a moment ago when the inseparable brother-sister duo joined our family.

MAXNDMAGGIE2

Of course 15 dog years is a big deal and it got us all speculating on how old Max and Maggie actually are in human years?  Most people assume that one dog year is the same as seven human years.  That would make our dogs 105.  But turns out it’s not quite that simple.  Dog experts say you must take both the breed and size of the dog into consideration when calculating a dog’s age in human years.  As well, it’s important to remember that all dogs age significantly in their first year, anywhere from 10 to 15 years on average.  All said, our dogs could be anywhere from 73 to 80 human years old.  But here’s the thing—clearly there’s no exact science, only averages—so my suggestion is to simply enjoy your dogs while you have them. I couldn’t imagine life without ours.