actually, michele - i hope you don't mind my telling you this- but most
people these days have finally come to understand that the "dog year"
equation isn't really valid.  in the life of a dog, the first year equals
oh, let's say about 12-15 years...eg, during the first year, the dog becomes
sexually mature.  then, by the end of the first year, the dog can be
considered a young adult....say, about 18-20 years old.  after that,
well...you can take the average lifespan of the breed and do some fancy
calculating...like, ok, poodle will live 15 years (just an example), people
live 80 years, so...if it's "20 years old" after 2 years of life, that
leaves 60 more people years to be lived over 13 more calendar years, so each
"dog year" would equal about 5.1 "people years"....Whew!  too much trouble
for me!!!  and it's not a perfect equation this way, either.
 
for ferrets, well, they hit puberty pretty young, bet 5-9 mos, let's say
at 6 months for ease of calculations. say they live, on average, 8 years.
ok, well...15 yrs at age 6 mos, then in the next 7.5 years they get to
live 65 people years...that's about 8 "people years" to 1 "ferret year"...
 
now, personally, i don't put much stock in these equations.  i think our
furry/feathered/finned/whatever friends are all so different and have such
different physiology/metabolism/etc (even though in many ways they're
similar to us, as well...) that we should just let them live out their lives
in calendar years, and not try to squeeze them into our framework.  as long
as an owner knows when to expect, say, onset of geriatric problems or
whatever, that's probably enough info.  i prefer to just enjoy my pets
without wondering if they're as old as aunt hilda yet...:)
 
what do you guys think?
 
[Posted in FML issue 1328]