My dog is 11 years old and showing his age. His name is Fetcher, named by my son. He's a white dog, and he's one of the most peaceful, easy dogs to be around ever. Everyone loves this dog. His favorite thing to do is chase bumble bees in the back yard and bark at them. I hope Fetcher has 3 more summers but I'm afraid that's not realistic. I love this dog.
Guy Clark has a great song called "Queenie's Song", where he offers to hunt down the person who shot his dog. He sings, What the hell were you thinking with Queenie in your sights?
The bees Fetcher chases are those fat carpenter bees that buzz around in the spring, when everything's blooming. I've watched them, and they toy with the dog. They swoop in on him so that he flips out and barks, then they zoom away. Then they come back and do it again and Fetcher loves it. Once in a while he catches one, and gnaws at it to play with it, gets stung half the time, and winds up killing the bee. Which he doesn't understand, so he'll sit there and bark at the bee to get up. Get up.
He waits a long time for those downed bees to move.