I understand this. Like the old song goes...”after 20 years he still grieves”.
Yep we do. You come home without your best bud and he is everywhere and nowhere. His dishes and his sleeping spots are empty. His favorite toys are here and there. No more play. His leash is hanging by the door. No more walks. It is gut-wrenching.
Six months later if you can do it, you have a new pup. And he steals your heart. Twelve years later, he’s slowing down, can’t play like he used to, sleeps for hours, and can’t hear you calling him inside anymore. You use hand motions to call him in. The Sherriff isn’t on duty so much anymore. God, how you love that good dog. And you know you don’t have years left anymore. That’s where I’m at now with my Riley.
I know there are people who think Levin is a moron for mourning that dog. But I get it. Completely.
I just lost my Maine Coon Bijou 4/4/20. There is not a day that goes by without me weeping for the loss of her. My heart goes out to Mr. Levin, because we’re both going through the same thing now.
I don't know how she did it but somehow she'd get up on the bed without us feeling it and we'd wake up with her at our feet or between us.
Every great once in awhile as I'm drifting off to sleep, I hear those toenails clicking on the floor and I hear her plop down on her bed and sigh. And then I fall asleep.
Totally get it. We have lost six. NONE of them was easy, but the last death was the most difficult pet death I have ever tried to get over.
The Art of Racing in the Rain.
Or Boz right behind me on his bed, a rescue Boxer now twelve years old.
I can’t read The Power of the Dog without my eyes tearing up remembering old friends
http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems_dog.htm
Beautiful poem.
Condolences to Mark Levin.
I have been told that I'm a sociopath, in that I can casually observe the suffering of humans, yet descend into depression and gloom at the thought of a suffering dog.
Weird people, us humans.
But I think that's what makes us human.
An anecdotal relation, if I may:
I rescued a half-bred Rhodesian Ridgeback from the roadside years ago.
The first several months were horrific, as he was mostly worms and parasites, requiring several trips to the vet and much money to rid him of the ravages of his wild living.
But once he began to regain his strength, nothing...and I do mean absolutely nothing would keep him from being as close to me as possible at all times.
He was overly protective of me, to the point of actually standing in front of cars/trucks that he felt were getting too close to me.
He never growled at my wife or kids or acted in the least aggressive toward them, but they knew, KNEW that the biggest human in his eyes was me, although he would tolerate them, as long as I was in sight, allowing the kids to play ball and fetch with him, but with an eye on where I was at all times
I'm a "gentleman" farmer and I had a tractor that was not in the best of repair.
Of course, Trouble (an apt name) was right there watching my every move.
My exasperation caused me to throw a wrench down, which promptly bounced on the cement shop floor and struck my leg.
Trouble was up and had the wrench immediately and was gone.
I never saw the wrench again.
I tried to tell him that it was not the wrench's fault, it was the tractor that had pissed me off.
He immediately commenced to chewing on the lugs of rubber on the tire of the tractor, as if to say...don't even do that again!
Over time, all I had to say, no matter where on the ranch we were, was: "That tractor pissed me off!" and he was gone!
16 years he owned me.
16 great years, marred only by the tumor he developed on his right rear leg, which was inoperable.
But he adjusted to it and lived rather well with it, until a stroke last year.
We will forever miss them, no other dog will be like them, but we are thankful for the time we had them.
Believe me, I share your pain.
Truly mans best friend and the Chinese eat them for dinner, who is the animals here? scumbag chinese
I have an unwritten rule/bias in my head, I am immediately suspicious of someone who either has never had or doesn’t like dogs.
One of the reasons I don’t get another dog. You love them and then you have to say goodbye.
My little buddy is a 3 year old black lab. I don’t even want to THINK about the day. It is going to completely break my heart. I hope its a long long time until then.
Our Aussie is on her last legs. :( 13 and a few months old.
So far 2020 has been an awful year and getting worse.
We had a sheltie mix (Other half unknown) for 13 years.
Good animal and friend. Had to put her down due to pancreatic cancer.
Robinson Jeffers: The House-Dog’s Grave
I’ve changed my ways a little; I cannot now
Run with you in the evenings along the shore,
Except in a kind of dream; and you,
If you dream a moment,
You see me there.
So leave awhile the paw-marks on the front door
Where I used to scratch to go out or in,
And you’d soon open; leave on the kitchen floor
The marks of my drinking-pan.
I cannot lie by your fire as I used to do
On the warm stone,
Nor at the foot of your bed; no,
All the nights through I lie alone.
But your kind thought has laid me less than six feet
Outside your window where firelight so often plays,
And where you sit to read‚
And I fear often grieving for me‚
Every night your lamplight lies on my place.
You, man and woman, live so long, it is hard
To think of you ever dying.
A little dog would get tired, living so long.
I hope that when you are lying
Under the ground like me your lives will appear
As good and joyful as mine.
No, dears, that’s too much hope:
You are not so well cared for as I have been.
And never have known the passionate undivided
Fidelities that I knew.
Your minds are perhaps too active, too many-sided...
But to me you were true.
You were never masters, but friends. I was your friend.
I loved you well, and was loved. Deep love endures
To the end and far past the end. If this is my end,
I am not lonely. I am not afraid. I am still yours.
Mrs AV,
In memory of Superior Legs Diamond(Legsy) - the best Pembroke Welsh Corgi in the worldie.