Actress Jorja Fox may play a forensic scientist on CSI, but her real-life role is playing the part of mom to her 13-year-old boxer, Ali. “She was a rescue, and a friend of mine was desperately trying to find her a home,” Fox told PEOPLEPets.com last week at the Taste of Beverly Hills. After taking her in, “I had her only two or three weeks when I realized, ‘This is probably the best decision I ever made.’ "

Fox boasts that on Oct. 10 (10/10/10), Ali will be celebrating her fourteenth birthday, which is “pretty old for a boxer.” With age, she has developed “a little arthritis [and is] a little hard of hearing,” adds Fox, “but she’s a great girl and I’m really thrilled to still have her around.”

Although Ali is almost 100 in doggie years, age is just a number for the active pup! “I still take her to the beach [and] run her around. She likes that,” says Fox. “She still loves to go on car rides and smell the city.”