Goodbye to a great dog

[Anonymous Poster]

You did good. You can't do anything else when they're old and sick except make the vet rich. My old dogs are on the hill east of the house. When I visit them I don't usually bring any dogs with me, cause they just pee on the headstones. Somehow, when I look at the names and dates and titles carved into native rocks, I remember all the funny and wonderful things we did, and the bad days don't hurt anymore.

 

[dmccarty]

Pete,

I'm very sorry to hear about your loss. We lost one of our Goldens last fall. Thorpe lived a long happy life and she showed her love for my wife with the last breath in her body. I have her ashes in an container that I keep in the study. This way she can physically be with us forever. I wish I had the ashes of my other dogs.

When I picked Kelly the GSD out of the litter it took me a good 30-60 minutes to actually pay for her and leave. I knew that as soon as I took this dog home my life would never be the same and one day I would have to mourn her loss.

The love and loyalty a dog provides for such little in return is one of the wonders of the world. But we pay for it when they leave us and we are alone without them....

Take care......
Dan McCarty

 

[GlueGuy]

Oh man... That's really too bad Pete. I know how you feel. I've gone through the same thing a few times, and you never "deal with it" any better. One of the hardest things about pets like cats and dogs is that their lifetime is so much shorter than ours. They are still family.

My heart goes out to you, and I hope you can remember the good times with her.

The GlueGuy

 

[alan40]

Sorry to hear about your loss.
Take care and remember all the good times!!!
Now go out and play with the rest of your Goldens.
There good therapy for a bad day!!!
Al

 

[Bird]

Unfortunately, I'm afraid most of us know what you're experiencing because we, too, have been through it, and sad to say, most of us will experience it more than once. You certainly have our sympathy. Our last dog, a border collie, was hit and killed by a speeding pickup truck last year. That was one time, I got no pleasure at all from using my tractor; to dig the grave with the front end loader.

Bird

 

[Boondox]

Thank you

Death is not a friend of mine. I've taken it hard since losing friends in SE Asia so many years ago. My wife is actually better at saying goodbye than I am. All I can think of is that Molson -- that magnificent gun dog who pulled me to safety when I fell in the ice cold springhouse last winter -- is eight years old. Part of me will die when I lose that fellow...

So thanks for being there. Thanks for understanding. Thanks for all the thoughts and words and wishes.

Pete
www.gatewaytovermont.com/rescue
(Molson is the fellow with the snow on his nose)

 

[dmccarty]

Re: Thank you

Pete,

Molson made me think of a Black lab named Smokey. Many years ago when I was 2-3 years old maybe a bit younger, my parents and I would go to a fish camp in Florida. I think it was around Tampa but I'm not sure. I can vividly remember the huts/houses we stayed in. Some where off the ground build on cinder blocks while others "cabins" where made from cinder blocks. I can remember the ditches around the cabins and going out in the boat with my dad early in the morning just as the sun was rising, with a chill in the air and fog on the water. I can also remember being bored out of my mind on a Saturday because the did not have TVs in the cabins! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Smokey the Black Lab had the run of the place and I liked him. He was a dog and I was a kid so that is all it takes! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif I can remember wearing red PJ with the feet in the pants holding on to Smokey. Holding on means my hands could reach his back and I could barely see over the top of him. So I must have been young. I can remember playing around one of the huts that was built on cinder blocks with a ditch around the cabin. I found an interesting item to play with. It was a crab. Smokey knew about crabs and started barking like a mad dog at me because I was trying to get ahold of Mr. Claws. It was some sort of land crab and I remember it being very big. Course I was small so keep it in perspective. Smokey KNEW that if I got ahold of that crab that crab was going to get ahold of me! [smile} Smokely was smarter than I! [smile} I went after the crab and Smokey put himself between me and the crab so I would not get caught by Mr. Claws. I can remember beating on Smokey's back and trying to push him out of the way to get to Mr. Claws but Smokey would not move. Smokey just stood there barking, taking my abuse until my parents came over and got me out of there.

I have found memories of Smokey. My parents still talk about him........

Dang good dog! I still have fingers because of him! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Later...
Dan McCarty

 

[TraderMark]

Sorry to hear about your loss, Pete. I know it's not easy.

 

[Joeinindy]

I know what you are going through, we had to have our "Byron" a Golden Retriever put down about a year ago. He was only 4 years old, he had heart failure. It tore us up to lose him at such a young age. Funny that a dog with as big a "heart" as he had would die from heart diease. I raise Beagles and just lost my best Male "MoJo". He was hit by a car while running a rabbit. I felt terrible, but at least he went doing what he loved to do. Mo took second in the state championship in 1999 at 8 years old and was the best hunting campanion I'll ever have.

 

[fishman]

Pete,

Losing a dog is something you won't ever get over because you will never forget them. I grew up with a black lab named "Eve" (Wow, just typing this brings tears to my eyes). I remember going with my parents when I was 5 or 6 and us picking her out of a litter outside at night. She was the one that hid in the shadows next to the house. I grew up hunting ducks with her and my dad and often hunted upland game with her in the farm fields behind the house. Once I even tripled on quail, and she brought them all to me. I shot my first goose the last hunt she went on when she was alive. I was eighteen and full of vinegar, and she had to be helped out of the blind. She limped out, swam to the goose, and dragged it back, but it was too heavy to pull up the mound to the blind. It was a sorry sight, because hunting and water was what she lived for. The next spring she developed cancer and eventually we had to have her put down (terrible, terrible). The next duck season, Dad and I scattered her ashes across the wetland on opening weekend after a particularly memorable hunt. I didn't think I'd ever have another dog. When my daughter was eight, a combination of events brought a little lab female into our house who was promptly named "Eve". She's a great dog, but it saddens me to know what will happen. You'd best get on out and enjoy your other dogs while there is still time.