Aw man.
Just when I thought I was all done crying this month.
What a beautiful, heart-breaking story.
My greatest fear is that I will die somewhere away from my dogs and they will think that I willingly abandoned them.
I couldn't take that and neither could they.
When my beloved old gal died on the way to the vet, I "felt her leave".
We brought her back home and laid her on "her spot on the sofa" so the other dogs could see her one more time.
One by one, they sniffed and nuzzled her and I suppose, said their goodbyes.
The usually rowdy and raucous hounds were all unnaturally somber, subdued and silent.
The next day, we buried her in the front yard, very near where her "spot on the sofa" is, but outside of the house wall.
The other dogs were still silent.
We placed her in the ground in her favorite blanket and as soon as the first shovelful of dirt went over her, low, eerie, endless and mournful howls came from within the house.
It was the most spine-tingling, nearly subsonic sound I've ever heard.
They -knew- and I suppose that was their equivalent of funereal bagpipes or somesuch thing.
I'd never heard my hounds howl before and have never heard them howl again, since.
Thanks for your kind words, and your incredible story...it gave me chills...you refer to your dogs as the hounds...do you have hounds?...I have had cocker spaniels, and many mixed breed dogs, and I have been owned by 3 basset hounds...tho I have loved all my dogs, and treated them all equally, still, its the basset hounds that tug at my heart...they are my favorites, tho I try never to let my other doggies know that...
When I was growing up, me and my brother(and my two male cousins who lived downstairs), had all manner of pets...dogs, cats, turtles, chameleons, birds...life without a pet was unthinkable...
So when I had my boys, I allowed, and encouraged them to have as many pets as we could afford to care for, and fit in the house...our home, was filled with dogs, cats, rabbits, and even some pet rats(who amazingly enough, are really quite sweet and affectionate, once you get used to them)....my older boy died many years ago, at age 15 from leukemia and my younger boy is a grown man of 31 and on his own...but the memories of my two boys, growing up in the country, throwing open the back door, and running in, covered in mud and dirt, and followed by a pack of cats and dogs at their heels, the smiles on all their faces(kids and animals alike), is a memory, that is precious and worth a million bucks...kids and their pets, is a winning combination...
And in our years without our children at home, the hubby and I had three dogs...two mixed breeds, and our last Basset, our dear Helga...they were all within a years age of each other, and they were a neat little pack that slept together, played together, ate together, loved each other, and loved me and the hubby...when one of the mixed breeds got very ill, I knew it was time to have her put down...I let her say her last goodbyes to the other dogs, and then sadly, took her out front to put her in the car for her last ride to the vets....as she crossed the front of the car, she just fell over, and died...it was as if, she was determined to die at home, not in a vet office...my husband built her a little coffin, and I put in her own personal favorite blankie, wrapped her in it...and she was buried out back under one of the big trees...
From that time one, the other mixed breed dog, mourned her, and was so sad...he could not be consoled, for after all, the dog we buried had been his mama...she had pups, and we found homes for them all, but kept him...so he had never known a life, without his doggie mom...and slowly he went downhill, and one morning, I woke to find him at my feet in bed, and he was also gone...so the hubby built him a coffin as well, and we wrapped him up in his favorite blankie, and buried him out back, right next to his mama...
The remaining dog, Helga the basset, seemed to be ok, but she was old, and we knew that soon, she also would go...within a few months, she also died...one evening, she just let out a blood curdling scream, fell over, and was gone..it was so quick..like the others, she is in a coffin my hubby made her, wrapped in her favorite blankie, and buried next to her two pals, under the big tree in the backyard...my three doggie babies, are all together in their own little cemetary, as is fitting, because they were altogether with each other in life....
Thanks for letting me ramble on about my dear dogs...they were a blessing to my life...