I can’t believe how much better — healthier, happier and more excited about life — I will be at 50 than I was at 40. (Assuming I make it another two months and change to the big 5-0.)

And there’s still plenty of room for improvement …

Actually, I suffer a lot less than I used to. When I was a child, the treatments for asthma were pretty minimal and pets were a problem, although I had them anyway. That lasted well into my 30s, until finally I had a couple of near-death experiences. (One time, I actually had the incredible experience of watching the emergency room team work on my body below. Wooo, was THAT weird!)

But … a couple things changed for me. Most important, a medication called Advair. (Not a commercial endorsement, but the truth.) It reduced my asthma symptoms almost to nil. When I do have a rough patch of breathing (typically in spring and fall), I have a nebulizer and can usually get lung capacity back to where the Advair can work its magic. I also have an air filter, although I don’t use it very often.

Losing a couple hundred pounds also seems to have helped the breathing. (I had gastric bypass surgery in 2000.)

The rest of my allergy symptoms — sneezing, runny eyes, etc. — are seasonal and pretty easilly controlled by other meds. But I really don’t care about that, since if can breathe I can deal with the rest of it.

The key (in my experience) is to find a good allergist and a good pulmonary specialist who doesn’t start with, “OK, first, get rid of your pets …”

Once I found doctors willing to work with me and who accepted that the pets WERE NOT LEAVING, then we could get somewhere on the treatment.

If you take the time to wash your dog’s feet when they come in from outside, you’ll really cut down on the “doggie odor”. And this can be done fairly easily by dipping their feet in a pan of soapy water kept by the door just for that purpose, then wiped with paper towels. Dogs who are taught to do this learn to stand patiently for the procedure.

For many folks, the doggie odor that goes with living with dogs isn’t that big a deal. But if you are someone for whom it is a problem, then you will probably find that washing your dogs’ feet frequently is well worth the effort.

It’s actually the litter tracking that really makes me nuts. I vacuum the ‘runway’ carpeting outside the litterbox bathroom almost every night.