Mar 04 2008
A Fine Dog. A Best Friend.
This hurt:
I know most of you can empathize. Those who can’t, just haven’t had that one special dog yet.
I’ve lost one of the best friends I’ve ever had. Yesterday morning I had to have my dalmatian, Shiner, put to sleep. As you know, he’d gone deaf, had cataracts in both eyes, and had arthritis in his hind legs. This never affected his love, spirit or loyalty.
He laid down and took a nap behind my truck Monday night, and never heard the engine when I got in to back it up to the shop. I badly broke his leg and crushed his pelvis. He spent Monday night at the emergency vet clinic, and Tuesday I took him to our vet, who referred us to specialists in the next city. The vet there laid out his chances for recovery and the prognosis was not good. Prior to this, Shiner still had some good days ahead. After, there would be no more “good days”, so I had to tell him goodbye and let him go. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
Now he’s got a place up next to the shop, but for the first time in 13 yrs he didn’t meet me when I got home last night and didn’t see me off to work this morning. It’s going to take a while.
