Goodbye to my old friend
Christmas of 1992 my brother made a trip to the Nebraska Humane Society to get a dog. He came home with a beautiful Black Flat Coated Retriever. I was renting a room in my brothers house and I was as close to her as everyone in the house. Mayte was a little more than a year old. It became very apparent that she had been abused by her prior owner. She was very afraid of men, and the bigger the man, the more afraid she was (It took her almost 10-years to get over this). I moved out two-years later. A year after that, my brother decided to go to grad-school in Lincoln and Mayte became mine.
She has been one of my best friends over the years. I always said, “She does not care where I have been, who I have been with or what time it is. When I come home, she is just happy to see me.” She has always been there for me. When I would get serious with a girl, I would always tell them that Mayte was here before you and will be here after you. That one never went over to well. She was there for me during break-ups, deaths in my family, when I was losing my hair, when I lost jobs, my wife losing a pregnancy, and losing my mother earlier this year. She always had that sense that something was wrong and always came over with that, “Pet me, you will feel better. Then you are going to throw the ball and I am going to run, get it, and bring it back. It will be fun.”
Mayte has been the subject of many stories of my friend’s children here in Omaha and over the U.S. I have truly never met anyone that did not like her. She does not have a bad bone in her body.
Unfortunately, her body is now failing her. I finally came to the conclusion tonight that privately everyone has known but me. It is time to put her down. Her spirit is there, but her body is not. She stopped eating and has been having problems walking. And her sphincter has been working in slow motion and that has not been going over to well lately. My two-year old has even picked up how “Mayte poop?” We have another dog Abby (who is 11). When Abby goes out she always waits for her. When Mayte is gone, Abby is miserable and comes to life when she returns. I tell them they are the best doggie friends in the world.
So in the last six months I ordered the morphine to speed things along with my mother on her final night and tomorrow I am going to schedule my dog’s final ride in the car to go to the vet. Knowing it is the best thing for her is no consolation. I will have to explain this to my two-year old and that is not going to be easy.
# posted by V's Thoughts @ 9:29 PM
