I Hate Being A Grownup - Memories of My Dogs

It's just so hard sometimes.

I had to make a decision to put my dogs down in January and it was awful. They would have been fifteen years old in March, but it just wasn't fair to them to keep them around just because of me. They were both basically blind, both had multiple health issues, and both had recently taken a turn for the worse as far as the progression of their dementia. Still -- it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

It's so difficult to do the right thing for an animal. People can at least tell you what their wishes are and you can carry them out. With animals, though, you *have* to make the decision.

I had had them for fifteen years, minus two months. They have been with me in six locations -- four in Texas, one in Idaho, and one in Washington (two if you count the apartment & house in the same town). I have moved them, along with all my other earthly goods from hither to yon and have been glad to do so. They were good dogs. They loved me dearly, even when they forgot who they were.

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I remember when they were puppies -- when I first got them in Lubbock. I remember asking someone at the apartment (who also had a Lhasa puppy) where they got it, getting the info, and driving out to the breeder's house to check out the litter, dam, & sire. I only wanted one and picked out Bix on a Friday. I thought about it all weekend and realized that I needed her to have a buddy since I was going to college and working. So, I picked up her brother along with her on Monday.

They were adorable -- tiny little puffballs of fur. They played together until they just.fell.down and they loved being petted and held. They both wanted to be lapdogs. . . but they were WAY too wiggly. =P I remember taking them for walks and teaching them to "wait" at the streets. I also remember them running like crazy dogs outside on the "dog lawn" at the apartment.

I had them in Lubbock for a little over a year -- until I graduated from college. When I left the apartment, my security deposit stayed behind -- I should have known then that they would be the most expensive toys I would ever own. =D

I packed them up, along with everything else and moved to Big Spring where I had a job waiting. They got to live with my mom and me while I was working at the hospital. They roamed around all over the homeplace and got to know Momma's dog, Bill. Bill was a "donated" lab/chow/pit mix (about 60 lbs) that someone just dumped out where we lived. He'd been with Momma for a while and had adjusted to Dudley, the old dog on the place. They were pretty good buddies up until Dudley passed away.

Bill and Bix got along pretty well because Bill thought she was the cutest thing he'd ever seen. Baxter, however, was another story. Both of the boys still had all their equipment which led to some pretty ugly confrontations. After the third or fourth "misunderstanding" -- which always involved separating both dogs, they both went to visit Dr. Neil for an attitude adjustment. That definitely stopped the "misunderstandings", but Baxter never really trusted Bill after that, not that I could have blamed him.

A year or so later, I got itchy feet and went to live in Austin. I took the dogs and my stuff and found an apartment near my work. It was a great place, if you had dogs, because it was right next to an "overflow" basin. (When it rained really hard, the water would catch in the overflow basin and be allowed to flow out in a much more constrained manner during the next few days.) Since they were right next to this big basin, the apartments basically designated the dam around the basin as the "dog walk". The apartments also had a "policy" where dogs couldn't weigh over 25 lbs, which gave me a little trouble with Bax -- he fluctuated between 24-26 pounds. They also didn't like the idea of me having two of them, but. . . I explained it like this, "You can either have a tenant that has two dogs. . .or you can have an empty apartment." Yep, we all moved in shortly thereafter. =D

Speaking of the 25 lb policy. . . one of the tenants there had two GINORMOUS dogs -- one was a Rottweiler and one was a mastiff. Yeah, I know. 25 lbs, my hind fanny. Anyhow, they "usually lived with someone else" and he "only had them a few times a month" so I guess it was fine. Mmmhmm. Anyhow, Bix met these two huge dogs one night on our dog walk. Baxter immediately hid behind me but Bix ? Oh, noooo. Thank God I had them both on their leashes because she went RIGHT AT the biggest dog I've ever seen, barking and growling.

Have you ever seen a big dog laugh ? I have.

Both Tyson (the Rott) and Slobber (the mastiff) [ hey, it's not like I named 'em ] LOOKED at each other and, I swear this is true, LAUGHED. I am yanking on Bix's leash, trying to get her out of the jaws of doom and they just continued their doggie laughing. She was so protective. All 14 lbs of her. Telling those big ol' dogs that they would be in BIG trouble if they hurt her momma. She was the very best scooby snack I've ever seen.

More later -- I have to go find Kleenex now.

Thoughts ?