This will be the third year in a row that we lose a beloved dog in the family. My mother lost Bosco while I was in Atlanta for Petit le Mans in 2009, my wife's adorable Shadow died last June... Bosco was just about 10, pretty young for a dog in our family to take ill - we found out very late that he had hemangiosarcoma. Shadow was around 16 or 17, and lived pretty well with kidney failure for about a year, until it became too much for her.
With Kit... he's been my hero. He famously defended us from a rabid raccoon a few years ago. He's been by my side through good times and bad, never one to complain. I got him - or I should say my ex did - from the pound as a stray back in 2000. The local humane society didn't want to adopt him out - said he was "vicious and unadoptable," because he'd snapped at the dog catcher who cornered him in a field. Hey, you grab my neck and my ass to throw me in a truck, and I'm taking a chunk of you with me too.
We won that fight. We brought him home. He was maybe 2 or 3, we weren't sure, but he was in good health. He's been blessed with good health, for the most part, for the last 10 years.
Such a good run of health, in fact, that I never could've seen this coming.
I'm not just giving up, though. I don't believe in sending him to the big dog park in the sky while he's still smiling, and still has good days ahead of him. I know those days are numbered - and I'm typing through tears at the thought of it. Dogs just don't live long enough, while stupid damn turtles live forever... George Carlin once said "life is a series of dogs." And that when one dog dies, if you get another one that looks enough like your last dog, you don't even need to change the photo on your desk at work.
Humor fails me right now. No other dog looks like Kit. He is truly, in every way, one of a kind.
With Kit... he's been my hero. He famously defended us from a rabid raccoon a few years ago. He's been by my side through good times and bad, never one to complain. I got him - or I should say my ex did - from the pound as a stray back in 2000. The local humane society didn't want to adopt him out - said he was "vicious and unadoptable," because he'd snapped at the dog catcher who cornered him in a field. Hey, you grab my neck and my ass to throw me in a truck, and I'm taking a chunk of you with me too.
We won that fight. We brought him home. He was maybe 2 or 3, we weren't sure, but he was in good health. He's been blessed with good health, for the most part, for the last 10 years.
Such a good run of health, in fact, that I never could've seen this coming.
I'm not just giving up, though. I don't believe in sending him to the big dog park in the sky while he's still smiling, and still has good days ahead of him. I know those days are numbered - and I'm typing through tears at the thought of it. Dogs just don't live long enough, while stupid damn turtles live forever... George Carlin once said "life is a series of dogs." And that when one dog dies, if you get another one that looks enough like your last dog, you don't even need to change the photo on your desk at work.
Humor fails me right now. No other dog looks like Kit. He is truly, in every way, one of a kind.
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