Of course I always tried to match the dog to the excursion, sort of like picking the right pants to go with a shirt. I had a whole range of inclinations and remnant abilities to choose from, all the way from reasonably fit given the ravages of age and arthritis to pretty much incapacitated.

Manda fell into this latter category from at least 1998 on, and she was often the chosen one when the itinerary included not much more than noodling around a bit along a lake. Frequently, though, she would seem to have difficulty staying with me even then, and it became apparent as early as that year that her world was growing dark and she was losing her eyesight. She never seemed to go entirely blind, or at least managed to compensate with other senses, and continued to make her way around pretty well all her days.