In all the excitement of the past week or two, with my dog’s knee surgery, the removal of multiple squirrel nests—and the associated squirrel urine stench—from our attic (more on that in a later post, perhaps), and this weekend’s 48-Hour Film Project, I nearly forgot that today is a pretty important milestone.

Eight years ago today, a beautiful young blonde woman came into my life. I can’t really think of many other ways keep this vague: I’m talking about my dog, Zeta.

Since I have no idea exactly how old she is, or when her actual birthday is, we treat June 14 as her birthday. The vet estimated that she was about two years old at her first exam back in 2007, so we’re treating today as her tenth birthday.

Or we would be treating today as her tenth birthday if we hadn’t all gotten so distracted by everything else going on. Zeta’s pretty oblivious to everything, anyway, given that she’s only one week into her surgery recover. Here she is earlier today:

She likes to convalesce noir-style.

Happy birthday, Z, and get well soon so you can have a proper birthday frolic.