Near the end, Shelby�s arthritis was very pronounced. She walked pretty slowly with a stiff gait. We kept her pain-free with medications and she seemed quite comfortable most of the time. A rainy, cold day was her only enemy. Senility was a mixed blessing for her. While it often made her confuse a closet door with the door to go outside, the blessing came when she would have to go to the vet's office. Instead of being terribly afraid as she was in her younger days, she was blissfully unaware of where she was. She would sit in the waiting room and greet people coming in the door like a Walmart greeter. "Hi, how are you, thanks for coming..." No matter how old and broken down she was at the end, all of the other dogs in our house deferred to "the queen" in matters of sleeping spots, permission to walk on stairs, rawhide treats, and other toys. Some of our boys outweighed her three to one, but that didn't diminish her position in the heirarchy in the house. It seemed that her age and all that she had endured in her lifetime had garnered unquestioned respect.