Coops Dad
Crowing
We lost two dogs in a space of a month 13 years ago, when our son was three; one,my Belgian Malinois, was 12 and died in her sleep and our Siberian Husky/Aussie cattle dog mix was hit by a car while in hot pursuit of a neighbor's car. She would catch and eat cats... incorrigible. So, when the second dog died, my little guy was heartbroken and sobbed that it wasn't fair, "Father God owes me two dogs!"
I've always felt that you don't look for dogs, dogs are supposed to find you. My wife never adopted my philosophy on dog acquisition so she promptly took our son to the local shelter, where he picked out a 6-month old Golden Retriever/Yellow Lab mix. She was the dumbest dog I have ever known. Her saving grace is that she had the biggest heart of any dog I've ever known.
Fast forward to now. She's 13+, her face is white, her eyes are clouded and she can't hear a spoken word at 6 feet. She's still a good dog. Actually, I upgraded her rank to "very good dog" a couple of years after she came into our family. She squared off on a random guy while we were in a Christmas lights walk, and she was relentless in her aggression toward him; not "going" for him but growling, baring her teeth and interposing herself to keep him from approaching our son. That episode was so completely outside of her normal joy at meeting ALL strangers that my wife (not a dog person) was leery of her for a month. I was impressed at her discernment and upped her rank to 5th or maybe even 4th best dog ever.
This last week, she stopped eating and vomits anything she manages to swallow. My wife tempted her with scrambled eggs, hoping she'd gain strength, but they came up moments after they went down. She lays near the heater at the bedroom door. A vet trip showed that she has an uncountable number of tumors, including several interfering with her digestive tract. The vet said she will eventually starve to death.
We're keeping her through the weekend and have a vet appointment on Wednesday.
My son is adopted. He has always known and never showed any angst over it until he was about 6. One night after prayers, he grabbed my hand and asked in a whisper "why would a woman give away a baby like that?"
My heart broke and I hugged him close and God gave me the right thing to say. I asked him if he loves his dog, he said yes. I asked if he'd ever get rid of her. Very fiercely, he said no; she's family! I asked " But where did we get her?" He answered "The shelter."
I said and how did she get there? Someone had to give her to the shelter. Maybe they were sick and couldn't take care of her, maybe they moved to someplace where they couldn't have pets, maybe they were too old for such a crazy young puppy. We just don't know but, because they did, God put her in our lives as our family. And I reminded him that the shelter have him a special paper when we got her.
It was in his closet and I pulled it out and handed it to him. It was a certificate of adoption showing my son as the adopter and the dog's name with our surname. My boy hugged me tightly and quickly fell asleep. He's 16 now and hasn't had a second of self-doubt since.
Our dog has been a very good dog. A very good dog.
I've always felt that you don't look for dogs, dogs are supposed to find you. My wife never adopted my philosophy on dog acquisition so she promptly took our son to the local shelter, where he picked out a 6-month old Golden Retriever/Yellow Lab mix. She was the dumbest dog I have ever known. Her saving grace is that she had the biggest heart of any dog I've ever known.
Fast forward to now. She's 13+, her face is white, her eyes are clouded and she can't hear a spoken word at 6 feet. She's still a good dog. Actually, I upgraded her rank to "very good dog" a couple of years after she came into our family. She squared off on a random guy while we were in a Christmas lights walk, and she was relentless in her aggression toward him; not "going" for him but growling, baring her teeth and interposing herself to keep him from approaching our son. That episode was so completely outside of her normal joy at meeting ALL strangers that my wife (not a dog person) was leery of her for a month. I was impressed at her discernment and upped her rank to 5th or maybe even 4th best dog ever.
This last week, she stopped eating and vomits anything she manages to swallow. My wife tempted her with scrambled eggs, hoping she'd gain strength, but they came up moments after they went down. She lays near the heater at the bedroom door. A vet trip showed that she has an uncountable number of tumors, including several interfering with her digestive tract. The vet said she will eventually starve to death.
We're keeping her through the weekend and have a vet appointment on Wednesday.
My son is adopted. He has always known and never showed any angst over it until he was about 6. One night after prayers, he grabbed my hand and asked in a whisper "why would a woman give away a baby like that?"
My heart broke and I hugged him close and God gave me the right thing to say. I asked him if he loves his dog, he said yes. I asked if he'd ever get rid of her. Very fiercely, he said no; she's family! I asked " But where did we get her?" He answered "The shelter."
I said and how did she get there? Someone had to give her to the shelter. Maybe they were sick and couldn't take care of her, maybe they moved to someplace where they couldn't have pets, maybe they were too old for such a crazy young puppy. We just don't know but, because they did, God put her in our lives as our family. And I reminded him that the shelter have him a special paper when we got her.
It was in his closet and I pulled it out and handed it to him. It was a certificate of adoption showing my son as the adopter and the dog's name with our surname. My boy hugged me tightly and quickly fell asleep. He's 16 now and hasn't had a second of self-doubt since.
Our dog has been a very good dog. A very good dog.
