Sorry to hear this. Losing a pet hurts like hell but sometimes you're too embarrassed to talk about it in case people think you're nuts. But you know what? Fuck that. They're members of your family and you deserve a chance to mourn.
I had to put one of my dogs to sleep a couple weeks ago too, but I was too broke up to post about it. She was a 6-year-old Rottweiler. I miss her terribly. I blubbered like a baby every time I talked about her for a while.
We got her from a dog rescue where my wife volunteers. Basically it's a shelter in Southfield where they don't kill animals to make space. We volunteered to foster her while she waited for someone to adopt. She had been rescued from a puppy mill where she lived in a crate and was used for breeding all the time. She was really underweight and had arthritis in her spine. She wasn't spayed, and she was in heat when she got to our house. I thought my wife was completely nuts for doing this to me...
Another troubling thing was that she would randomly let loose a gigantic flood of pee in the kitchen. So to address both of these problems, my wife bought a bunch of Pampers and cut out a little hole in the back for her tail stump.
My other dog, Guinness, is a 10 year old large black lab. He's neutered, but that didn't stop him from repeatedly tearing off her diaper and ... all the rest. But within a few weeks, she was out of heat and growling at him whenever he tried anything. We figured out how to keep her from peeing in the house, so we could get rid of the diapers. She did eventually settle into a good friendship with Guinness, following him around from place to place, and sleeping against him at night. When we saw this develop, we realized that all three of us liked her too much to give her away to anyone.
When we left the house, she would hop up on the back of the sofa like a mountain goat and stare at us as we got in the car. She also sometimes stole Guinness' toys, especially a stuffed duck that he loves. And she had bad breath all the time. And she did occasionally break into the garbage. And she did once hop up on the counter and crack open a bottle of dog medicine, which she shared with Guinness, and I had to make them both throw up with hydrogen peroxide. But that was as bad as she ever got. She was so innocent and goofy and friendly that we occasionally shared our furniture with her, and we were more than happy to do so.
As she gained enough weight, she was finally ready to go get spayed. My wife was allowed to assist. And when they opened her up, they found that she was so full of cancer that she had no more than a few weeks to live. My wife was horrified. We were both completely heartbroken, and still are today. We had her cremated. When her ashes arrived, I actually hugged the box they came in.
RIP Bonita, my sweet girl. That's her in front, Guinness in the back.
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x...k/IMG_3101.jpg
I'll never forget the experience of having her around, even if it was only for a little while. I'm now a committed believer in fostering shelter dogs.
And we've done it again. George is here now. George is another Rottweiler - there are a lot of those in shelters these days. He's only 2 years old, and it's still hard to keep him from peeing in the house. George is a little scared of me. I think I know why:
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x...k/IMG_3341.jpg
This is a dog that should be at least 80 pounds, weighing in at 59. He's almost painful to look at, he's so skinny. He was starved and abused by his previous owner. I spend a lot of time with him.
If you like dogs a lot, and you want to get one, please visit a local volunteer shelter and meet the ones they have instead of buying one from a breeder or a store. They need your help and there are always really good dogs available. Some of them came from families where they lost their homes in the mortgage crisis and there are so many in the shelters right now. They need your help. OK, I'm done preaching now.
Back to your regularly scheduled "suck" thread.
