Soon after I came to Juneau I met a woman who had her finger in many pies in Juneau. She had three dogs when I met her. One was the "puppy", now 7 years old that she had acquired to replace one of her older dogs at their inevitable demise.

The 'pup', as I said, was now 7; the middle dog was 17 and the oldest dog, she said, was 24. The older dogs weighed, I would guess, 25 and 30 pounds respectively. None of them was pure bred.

The two older dogs were quite arthritic; they would exit her car and nose around on their creaky legs but they seemed pretty mellow. Their tail wagging nearly knocked them off their feet.

I have/had no reason to disbelieve her.

I do know two dogs in Juneau aged 17 and 19 today. And cats- gads, I've never known cats to live as long as they do in Juneau. I suspect that there is less stress in Juneau- less pollution, a very active outdoorsy lifestyle, no hot weather. I dunno.