617 Gotta Have Faith.

I do not cry often these days. Remembering the puppy who wanted my Doritos during cartoon marathons has made me choke back a few tears between smiles. She was a beautiful pup, JT. She knew she was loved very dearly.

“I get by with a little help, from my friends!”

I’ve been there. My Dog, Bandit, passed away in 2008. I am 20. now. I was 18 then. He died on Jan 2. I cried like a baby that day. I had him since I was 2. My earliest memories are of him being housetrained. around the same time I myself was making the leap from diapers to proper undies. The memories still bring a smile to my face. He saved my life once. I almost died of a fever back in third grade. I was so far gone I couldn’t even speak or make a noise. My room door was shut but though he was outside, he knew something was wrong and forced my family through a series of barks and urges towards my door to check on me. Aside from the housetraining, he was NEVER trained. He wasn’t my pet. He was my brother. We grew up together. We played together, heck, we even beat the crap out of each other when we were younger.

All you can do when a “pet” like that passes on is remember them how they were when they were in their prime. I don’t know if they are, but if they are sentient, with complex thoughts and feelings of their own, with an ability to communicate complex thoughts and ideas, I am certain that if they could tell us so, that’s how they’d want us to remember them. In their prime. When we were all at our best and our happiest, or when they were there for us the most and the strongest.

To this day, I swear that Bandit was smarter and more empathic than most people I know. Towards his end, he was unable to walk. Couldn’t control his bladder… He was as a 90 year old man who has seen and done everything he had hoped to do. His mind was as sharp as ever, but his body was finally failing him.

Though those were my last thoughts and images of him. I don’t remember him like that. I remember him as the energetic nutjob he was. During the summer he’d play in the sprinkler with a gusto that would shame the most energetic gradeschool children. He’d watch tv with us and bark at the screen when the show began to suck, voicing all of our thoughts in a single syllable. He’d run up and down the stairs barking depending on who was up and who was down to get a member of the family to watch me or my brother minutes before one of us had a seizure (both of us are epileptics…)… That’s how I remember him.

Do her a favor, remember her the same way. It’s all you can really do. In time, you’ll still feel the pain of her loss, but it will be cushioned by those sweet memories of days gone by.

I know it’s hard buddy, but I know Sadie had a great life with you as her friend.

I’ve lost three pets in the last 5 years, and the pain is STILL there. I know how you feel, and I hope soon the memories will be more sweet than bitter as time goes on.

I respect you MORE for having these emotions over your lost companion than people who try to act stoic about it. Or worse, those who don’t care at all. *Hugs*

In a way, I envy you. You were there for your pet, no, friends last dying breaths. And while it isn’t easy, you are there to the end. I missed that for my dog, J.J., and my cat, Scooter, and wish I had been there. When my mothers cat, Kativa, passed, my brother told me that it was as if the light was taken from her eyes, and she was gone. That was before J.J., and I think it scared me into not seeing J.J. go.

I have so many regrets about not being there when my grandmother died, and when my best friend died before I could apologize to him, for fucking up our friendship in high school. So no matter how hard it is, how much it hurts, BE THERE. Because, I believe, in a way, it’s…what’s the word? Not easier, that’s for sure, but smoother. Crap I can’t think of the word, but I hope you understand when I say these things.

I think it’s silly, and a little dark, but whenever I start remembering Daniel, and my grandmother, my cat, and my dog (the one who helped me learn to walk, and even though she was a Collie, scared away the biggest dogs, two Rottweilers once, and a horse, protected me, and drove me crazy when I tried to walk her), I pick the hardest metal, turn it up as loud as it will go in my car, and usually smoke a cigarette, staring into space, letting my mind wander, drift, but never settle. I usually pass the excuse to others, that I like the metal, and it’s true I do, but the more and more I think about the universe we live in, the one so conformed to rules and life and death, physics, and quantum mechanics, the more I want to escape.

But then my phone rings, or I arrive at my destination, and life hits me again. I hope you deal with your pain and suffering a lot better than I do, my friend. Because it can eat you, and knives become lovers before friends do.

Been to that spot all too recently myself. After our black lab had to be taken to the vets, delaying just wasn’t fair to her, it was very bad for me, always looking for her, expecting her. But it was worse for our remaining dog Daisy, her daughter. Over a month later she was still looking around for her every time she was fed or went out for a “walk”, or went to her bed.

It is a sad story. so i feel i should add my own, not to dwarf your own but to represent another that has loved an animal(s) and lost. i grew up with a cat called blackjack. this was the smartest cat ive ever met, it knew how to open doors, it played fetch, boxed, and generally loved our family. when blackjack was 20 years old( i was aprox 16) he got outside, and got fleas really bad. so we had to bath him in flea bath, his immune system wasnt up to it any more and he got poisoned, so we put him down instead of making him suffer for weeks and then dying. i cried the entire night and much of the next day. when i was still a teen we had a dog named Augie. man was he amazing, he was so loving, and could play fetch till he died(that may sound wrong, but its the truth). we would have to quit throwing things and make him come rest by us because if we threw something, no matter how tired, how dehydrated, how out of breath he would fetch it. he loved it and loved us unconditionally. well he got heartworms really bad. so we took him to the vet, the dogs heart was fried baiscly from the worms and he was retaining way to much fluid. he was bloated to twice his size. when the doctor came into the room Augie got up to go visit. the doctor looked at us and said “that is one strong dog, any other dog would lie their unmoving, and he is still moving around” and man was he strong my dad once as a joke threw a log for him to fetch(keep in mind this was a boston terrier, think of the size of a bulldog but smaller) now when i say a log. i do mean a log. it was 5 feet across and over 6″ around. the dog damn near got hit in the head by it chasing after it. but the second it landed. he picked it up, and nearly tilting over because it weighed so much brought it back to my dad. after a few toss’s my dad was warn out well before this dog was. he was a fighter, but a lover as well. alas he even survived the heartworms, but not the trash he got into. yet i still miss him. i had a cat, truly this cat was mine(as much as anyone can own a cat). we called him hobo. because he was a stray and adopted us because we were nice to him pet him and fed him. never have u found a more friendly cat. he was clawed, yet i taught him to not use them on me when i pet him and he was enjoying it. what a purr that cat had! i once had this horrid nightmare about him dying, so i woke up and ran downstairs screaming his name, tore the front door open and their he was, waiting for me. i sat down and pet him for several hours(despite the fact it was a school night). obviously these antics woke my mom, so she came down to see what the bother was. and when i told her what i dreamed it wasnt a matter of going back to bed. this was family and id dreamed he had died. unfortunatly as an outside cat their comes risk’s and he got hit by a car while we were on vacation. we tried to nurse him back to health, but as any animal will do when close to death, they will leave their loved ones to go die away from them so they dont bring disease to them. i cant say im really over these animals, they were amazing to me. i cant say that when our current dog snicker dies, that i wont be devistated. but i will still remember all the great things about him, and even the anoying things, with a smile. because he is a unique individual that is apart of my family.

That vigil is the one thing that no pet owner wants to have to go through, won’t put off on someone else, and above all is the sign of someone who truly makes them part of the family. For that, I congratulate and thank you.

My story is a little different. I was living in Honduras with my family, when our dog Garra, a Gorgeous German Shepherd, was hit by a taxi. After skidding to a stop on the road, we brought her to a vet, where my mother refused to let me stay by her side so I could go to school, and instead stayed there throughout the days of recovery. The doctors there all said that the only reason Garra survived was because Mom was there with her the whole time.

So Garra lived, and the only sign she showed for her troubles was a dent in her skull. Three years later, however, a day came when she unexpectedly started to have difficulty breathing; she started gasping, her tongue and gums changed color… she was very obviously suffocating. Mom got the call and immediately came home. Garra saw her, crawled over to her, licked her hand, and then, just… stopped breathing.

Garra was, as most german shepherds are, incredibly intelligent, and very loyal. She was stubborn as a mule, but gentle and playful as a puppy when she could be. She was actually working her way through a search and rescue course when the accident happened.

Every pet we have ever owned has been a member of our family, and as such we celebrate their lives and mourn their deaths. I’m always comforted by the fact that there are others like us, who are willing to share their lives with those so willing to give theirs up to us.

Thank you for sharing.

-Kyle

I’ve come along a bit late, but I still want you to have my condolences. When we allow a little fuzzy dog or cat into our lives, part of the price we pay is that in all probability, we will outlive our little friend and family member and have deal with their death. The love and devotion of a little creature is as real as real can be so the price is probably worth it. I’ve seen tragedy and death in my family, but I’m not here to “top” you in any way. Allow me to share with you that not long ago my devoted little mutt, Eleanore Roosevelt, a Shitzu-Chihuahua, a fiesty but sweet-natured little companion, after 17 years of life, started having health problems. Her health unwound so fast it was shocking. In the name of sparing her unnecessary suffering, I asked her vet to end her life humanely and was with her to the last, wrapping her in a favored blanket and having her remains cremated. Her cremains will be disposed of in a dignified, worthy fashion. The death of this little dog was scarcely less affecting than anything else I have experienced, which takes nothing away from the other losses I or anyone else has had to bear.

You had such a wonderful dog. Just think, she’s up there waiting for you while enjoying the place she’s at.

reminds me of our old dog, Dredd. Giant bull-mastiff, kept us safe as houses in a country where every window was barred. he was a friend that would take it all and more and loved you with a passion that few humans could match.

miss you like crazy old boy

Six years late. Don’t care.

I think cats and dogs are very brave, to entrust their well-being to such large, dangerous, powerful creatures as humans.

And I think humans are very brave, to dare to love these small beings who we KNOW will leave us in only a few short years.

So great courage is everywhere. I try to remember this whenever I am confronted with evidence of some particularly egregious contemptibility in human behavior.

Mom of Xena the Cat, who is fine. For now.