Eleven years well spent

Today I turn eleven and I write it calmly, because birthdays are no longer lived in a rush but savoured. We are in Spain, in the province of Zaragoza, inside the camper and with papi Edu, which is exactly where I want to be when the calendar decides to do something important.

The morning has been intense and very entertaining. We have visited Belchite, a place full of ruins, strange silences and smells with history, the kind that force you to stop sniffing more than usual because each stone seems to have lived more things than I have. We walk a lot, we look, we walk again and we see some other things along the way, so when the sun begins to go down I already have the step counter well served and my head full.

In the afternoon comes the serious stuff, the real deal. The ritual. The doggy cake. Year after year, no matter what, this is not negotiable. The camper becomes calm, as if it knew that now it's time to celebrate without noise, and the outside world pauses a bit.

The cake appears with two candles. Two number ones, very straight and very dignified, which together form the eleven. Fire continues to command respect, I'm not going to lie, because one thing is to get older and another to become reckless, but the smell of the cake quickly reminds me why I'm here. I approach slowly, carefully calculating the distances, and take the first bite with the candles still lit, which at this point is already a tradition within the tradition and a clear demonstration of doggy experience.

The candles are extinguished without drama or heroics, as important things should be extinguished when they have fulfilled their function. Tradition fulfilled, again.

Then the present arrives, which always appears at the right moment, neither before nor after. A new toy, brand new and promising, which I smell, bite and approve with professional speed. I lie down with it between my front paws and think that there is no need to run anymore today, that the day has already given everything it had to give.

Eleven years feel good. They don't weigh you down, they settle you. It has been a long and complete day, with ruins in the morning and celebration in the afternoon, with a lot of world outside and home inside. The camper becomes a refuge again, papi Edu looks at me with that silent look of satisfaction and I return the look knowing something very clear.

If getting older is this, let no one try to change it.