About a Dog...

Yep, I stole that title from a 2003 comedy which looked at the relationship between pets and their owners.  I have to be honest with you...I've never watched it.  

I am taking a break from my performance related posts to share with you a little bit, about a dog...

As I sit and write today, my eyes are filled with tears.  You see, today my wife and I said our final goodbyes to a part of our family...our dog Chloe.  I say our final goodbyes, because I think we have been saying goodbye to her for sometime now - knowing full well that her life was drawing to a end sooner than we would have liked.

We never want our beloved pets to pass away, yet we don't want to see them suffer either.  I have always said that I would not let Chloe get to the point where I knew she was suffering.  The decision is never an easy one, but I think it's even tougher when you look at them and see that they still have life in their eyes...even though their bodies are beginning, the often times, long process of shutting down.  It was time.

There are people out there who just aren't dog people...or pet people for that matter.  They wont truly understand the deep loss that those of us who become so connected with our pets feel...and that's okay.  I know it may seem strange to some, to hear me say (or read it actually) that I loved my dog, and I mean truly loved.  It sounds weird, I know.  But truthfully, after seventeen years, she was part of our family.  

Like any other member of our family, we laughed with her (sometimes at her), we cried with her, and sometimes to her.  We talked to her, and she 'spoke' back to us...on command even.  She protected us, and provided a sense of comfort for my wife when I was at work.  She was a hiking companion, and someone that you could talk to, without having to worry about what she thought...although I have to tell you, there were times when I would swear she knew exactly what I was saying to her.  

There were times when she would do things like reach out with her paw, and place it on my hand when when she clearly sensed something was wrong.  There were times when she would just walk up and rub her head into whatever part of my body was the easiest to access, then roll over and look directly in my eyes, as I talked to her.  

She was a great athlete in her day...extremely fast and agile.  When she was younger, she liked to run directly at me, and jump right up into my arms.  She was very trusting of me...allowing me to hold her in my arms while she would lie on her back and relish in the attention she was receiving.  She was also a great little hunter.  If I remember right, Chloe racked up seven or eight confirmed kills...yep, she was a packrat hunter extraordinaire!  I would flush them out, as she sat back just waiting for me to give her the command to 'get em!'  And get-em she did.  Often at great personal sacrifice and pain, as those little rats dug their big 'ol chompers into her flesh, in their last great act of defiance.  

I will miss those times.  I will miss her.  

I chose to be with her right to the very end.  I wanted the last thing she saw, to be my face.  As the euthanizing medications coursed through her veins, I stroked her fur, whispering to her what a great dog she had been, and how much we loved her.