Thank You All
Matt and i would like to thank all of you for the outpouring of love and support after Coco passed yesterday. i don't know if i'll ever be able to respond to all of them, but please know that we appreciate it immensely. Coco had been aching for awhile. We figured it was just her old joints and that was part of the problem. We were never really sure how old she was, but it had to have been over 10 or so.
For those who haven't heard the story, Matt stole Coco. He had stopped by a friend's house back in 2000 and noticed her hiding under a bench in the corner. He asked what was up and she said that Coco had run away from the asshole down that street that keeps beating her. She even thought that the poor dog had a crushed windpipe at one time. She couldn't keep her since she was allergic to animals, but couldn't bring herself to send her back. She had even lied to the asshole when he came by looking for her. Matt said that he'd bring the car around and if she got in, he'd take her home. He opened the door and said, "Well, you coming?" Coco looked and then jumped in and off they went. She was afraid of her own shadow at first and would cower at any sudden movement. Once when Matt's then roommate, Chad - currently the cute and cuddly husbear of themonkeybear and Kevin, came home from work and was taking off his belt, Coco freaked and went running for cover. Poor baby.
In time, however, she came to know that she was loved. Oh sure, she got in trouble a few times, but her punishment was to be sent to the back bedroom and not allowed to be near Matthew. And believe me, there's no worse punishment, especially for her. She had to be around him or know where he was at at all times. That's why last year when Matt had his knee replacement surgery we had to send her to stay with his folks for a couple of weeks since she was always underfoot and i couldn't risk her tripping him up with his walker. But i think we missed her as much if not more than she missed him (oh, ok, and me...SOMEone needs to give her her petty-pet-pets).
When Matt took her to the vet on Thursday, he prepared him for the worst. He was pretty sure that she had cancer running through her, especially her spleen and liver. He'd given her some pills and if they didn't have the desired effect in a couple of days then that would confirm it. But you could tell she was in pain. She had quit eating and would lay on her side trying to relieve the pressure. She wouldn't even follow Matthew around. So when we went in yesterday, we were pretty much resigned to the inevitable. And we had made the same promise to her that we had made to each other: no pain. No keeping her around and in agony just for our sake. So we said our goodbyes. i was supposed to be strong for all of us, but i just broke down and started blubbering. We were given our time and it went slowly and peacefully. As some of you may have known, i worked with dogs for 20 of my 22 years in the Army. i've had to make that decision for my men and dogs more times than i cared since some handlers would be in denial - "no, Sarge, he'll be ok...he's hangin' in there." But it's not fair to our animals and they depend on us to look out for them, to be their voice and to do the right thing. i know we did. But that doesn't make it any easier. And i'll still cry. i don't have to be the tough guy. Just the one that loves my family. And i do. And that's OK.