This is one of those months where our local Clinton’s Cards makes a small fortune from me, as we have so many birthdays in March – gawd knows what everyone was doing nine months previously, in July.

OK, I have a rough idea.

But yes, I have spent nearly fifteen quid this month, on bits of card to send birthday felicitations to various family members.

One family member I don’t have to send a card to though, is Saber, who is five years-old today.

Allegedly.

I say that, because we aren’t 100% sure that it is today, but it’s around this time and for some reason, this was the date that was chosen and has been celebrated for the past 4 years.

She doesn’t get a card though, because she’s a dog and she can’t read.

And she doesn’t know it’s her birthday.

Even though she got some extra chicken slices for breakfast this morning, the fact that it’s a special day didn’t register one bit.

At five, she is still quite spritely and can run as fast as when she was younger, but I’ve noticed that she can’t keep going at that pace for as long as she used to.

A bit of reading on the internet reveals that the old adage of one dog year being equal to seven human years, is no longer considered to be accurate, as different breeds and different sizes will age at different rates.

The chart on this page puts her at 36… not too different to seven times five, then.

However, researchers at the University of California came up with a formula to calculate the age of Labradors (close enough to GSDs, I reckon): 16 x ln(dog’s age) + 31, where ln is a natural logarithm. Using this formula, I worked out that Saber is nearly 57.

Fifty seven!

No wonder she has started to slow down… I think I was in my twenties when it happened to me.