Thirteen Years Ago...
I was in my first job out of college, in my first live-in relationship, renting my first house with a yard.
And I got my first dog, the first dog that was MINE, not my mom's. He was supposed to be the boyfriend's dog, as the boyfriend had never had one at all. But it didn't work out that way.
The jobs changed. The boyfriend bailed. I found true love, got married and had a kid. I moved from the desert to the jungle to an area where winter exists. I lived in houses with virtually no yard and houses with more yard than I ever thought I'd get. The dog stuck by me through all that.
He ingested foam rubber, fertilizer, an entire chocolate cake at once, rats, crayons, sea water and socks, but he only got sick twice.
Through the years, vets told me he was going to die of: allergies, being too fat, being too thin, having cancer, having a thyroid condition, having a heart murmur, having spots on his lungs. They were always wrong.
But this time, I think he's really about to call it a day.
This is a large golden retriever we are talking about. I figured I'd be lucky if I got him for 9 or 10 years. Three years ago, I was convinced the vets were right and he was going to die. We're way ahead of anything we deserve.
Sigh.
I'm not posting a photo. Not yet, anyway.
And I got my first dog, the first dog that was MINE, not my mom's. He was supposed to be the boyfriend's dog, as the boyfriend had never had one at all. But it didn't work out that way.
The jobs changed. The boyfriend bailed. I found true love, got married and had a kid. I moved from the desert to the jungle to an area where winter exists. I lived in houses with virtually no yard and houses with more yard than I ever thought I'd get. The dog stuck by me through all that.
He ingested foam rubber, fertilizer, an entire chocolate cake at once, rats, crayons, sea water and socks, but he only got sick twice.
Through the years, vets told me he was going to die of: allergies, being too fat, being too thin, having cancer, having a thyroid condition, having a heart murmur, having spots on his lungs. They were always wrong.
But this time, I think he's really about to call it a day.
This is a large golden retriever we are talking about. I figured I'd be lucky if I got him for 9 or 10 years. Three years ago, I was convinced the vets were right and he was going to die. We're way ahead of anything we deserve.
Sigh.
I'm not posting a photo. Not yet, anyway.