When your dog dies

Oggie the rottweiler and I walked through life for 11 years.

After I quit a job in preparation for grad school, I sold my house and was staying at various relatives working on their houses for pocket money. Oggie developed a limp that turned out to be cancer.

I had to board him when I participated in a cross-state mass bicycle ride. When I returned to the kennel, he wasn't there. They'd sent him to my vets. I had to call the vet because the clinic was closed.

Oggie was in bad shape. Basically in a coma. The vet and I had to put him down.

That was on Father's Day 12 years ago.

My biggest regret is that I had to leave his body to be disposed of by the clinic. I was two states from where I was staying and the logistics of keeping him even moderately fresh in the 90 degree heat were just too much for me to figure out at the time.

I should have buried him in the Colorado mountains.

For months, every time I saw a dark shadow out of the corner of my eye in the places I was staying, I could swear it was him.

I'm sorry for your loss.

 

Cute story about my 5-year-old daughter regarding my dog allergy. Well, at least I thought it was cute, but I'm a tad biased where she is concerned.

Little OOP loves animals, particularly dogs, but she knows we can't have one due to my allergies. One day we were talking about it and I suggested that she could get one when she is grown up and out of the house.

"No daddy. I can't do that. I want you to be able to visit me without getting sick."

 

I got my first dog for my first birthday. He was killed when I was 7 by other dogs in some kind of a fight. He was missing for days when we got a call from someone one street over who knew he'd been missing. Our dog was dead in the woods behind their house. It was the first time I had ever seen my mom cry.

Our last dog was the best one of all. We got her at the pound on Easter Sunday 1978. She was incredibly smart, understood so much and I really think she was my dad's best friend. She spent all day just about every day with him. When she was about 11, she really slowed down and it was obvious she was sick. I was a junior in college and when I came home in April for Passover, I somehow knew it was the last time I was going to see her alive. It seemed like she knew, too.

I had just finished my last final of the year and went straight to a bar with some friends at about 4 in the afternoon. I called home from a pay phone in the bar (this was 1989, after all) and I knew the second my mom answered the phone that our dog was dead. My parents had taken her to the vet earlier that day and she was in kidney failure. She had to be put to sleep. My dad took it very, very hard. He was crying on the phone - it was the first time I'd ever heard my dad cry.

Sorry for your loss, zimbabwe. Even though this happened 20 years ago, I still miss our dog.

 

When the time comes to put down our beloved daschund, who's pushing 14, I'm going to have to be heavily sedated. We've had her from the beginning and she's probably more a part of the family than I am.

I've already worried about that day. I know I owe it to her to be in the room with her when the vet does it, but I don't know if I can handle it without the aid of seven or eight xanax. God, that's going to be a bad day. :'(

 

I've never had to do that and I don't even want to imagine how I'd feel. Makes me sad to think about it. For reasons mentioned above, I have a soft spot for that particular breed.

I guess I would just have to think of my idiot neighbor. She has this tiny little dog that broke "most of the bones in her body," to quote the neighbor, a few years back. The poor little thing got better for a while, but now she can't even bend her legs. She doesn't really even walk any more. Just kinda flops along. Idiot neighbor swears the dog isn't feeling any pain, but she should have done the right thing for her dog months ago.

 

This place is amazing.

Thank you all, more than you can know.

 

I guess this answers your question as to whether or not anybody would respond to this.

Yes, this place truly is special when you need it to be.

 

Even when you are THE most non-descript 1600+ poster in the history of the board.

I am moved.

 

Here it is:

http://www.amazon.com/Dog-Heaven-Cynthia-Rylant/dp/0590417010/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245271050&sr=8-1