Buddy, born 10 and a half years ago with an exact date unknown. He came to us through a coworker or mine as a stray puppy picked out of a drainage ditch. From the first day that he came into the home to his last day this morning, he was loved.
As a pup, he started off as a mix with a coat of black, white, and brown. In his latter years, the black on his nose faded to gray and as that became more noticeable, we knew that his time was short.
We watched him grow from his small puppy size into a full grown, seventy pound dog and had many laughs, walks, plays, and many other memories. Some of those include catching him in the clothes basket before he grew to large to fit in it. Memories of us looking for Buddy all over the house only to find him many times comfortably laying under the kids bed, sometimes he would stay there all night as if on guard for one reason or another.
When others would come into our home, he was always anxious to meet them and would soon lick the person to death if they would let him. Many times we would have to do intervention to get him to not jump up on people in his excitement or keep him locked out of the rooms all together.
He came first in our family followed by the arrival of our oldest, Angela, nine months later. He was comfort for my wife during that time and has been a great protector of the kids during his time with us.
Now, like any of us or any dog, he still had his moments where he caused fear and anger as he often would take neighborhood jaunts most often without us knowing it. Many times, we thought that he would have been picked up the local dog catcher, but thankfully that only happened once. He always came back though happy from where ever he went and often would carry a stench that would leave much to be desired for any kind of affection. He hated getting cleaned up, but after the first few times, he learned to just take it until we felt that he was sufficiently clean.
He also put up a lot with kids as they would play with him. When the kids where younger, especially with our youngest, Kirsten, they would play with him, pretend to ride him like a horse, and chase him around with their toys in whatever imaginary game they had at the time.
Oh, how we loved our dog, Buddy. Thankfully, we have another dog, Riddick, my sisters dog, to fill in the gap, but even that may be short lived as Shanna will be getting back from her mission in October. Will we ever get another dog after Riddick leaves, probably. However, Buddy will always hold a special place in our heart as he is the first...
His death was quick. He died in my arms as I carried him out to the car. He started showing signs of problems yesterday as he fell over, thrashed on the floor, threw up, and whimpered in pain. We took him to the vet and after some diagnosis, sent us home with some pain medication to see if it would help. Extensive test and hospitalization would have been needed to determine a cause, but we felt that he would not survive that long. So, we brought him home, made up a bed, and there he stayed the rest of the evening on into this morning. I got up to deliver papers and found him in a different position on the floor, but still breathing and looking coherent. Angie and I got the papers delivered, swapped vehicles with my parents for my dad's ankle checkup, and came home to find a mess with Buddy. He was spasming, coughing up blood, and just not doing good. At that point, I picked up his body and took him back out to load him into the back of the car to rush him to the vets. Right after laying him down, his body went stiff, had one major spasm, then all things stopped. His heart...his breathing...his eyes going lifeless...and I cried. The kids cried...my wife cried...we all cried...even now I am tearing up because I miss my dog, Buddy.
I know that he is in a better place, but that does not take the pain away from missing him. I cannot wait to see him again some day just as much as I cannot wait to see my daughter some day. I know that at this point she now has him and awaits the time that we will all be together again. I did not think that I would feel this way about our dog, because he is just a dog...but he was and is my dog and I do miss him terribly already.
I do not know what the rest of the day will bring emotionally. Shani has some things going on this evening...I still need to figure out what to do with Buddy's body. Christopher went to school this morning, but I did talk to his teacher of the situation. The other two kids are here at home and I have taken the rest of the day off from work. Angie will probably not be doing school today as the emotions are running high with her too, but you really cannot blame her.
Buddy...a great family dog in life...we will miss him and hope that he is happy where he is at now...can't believe how fast his life has gone by...miss you bud and keep Naomi company until we can all get back together.
