Has anyone ever lost a pet?

[Zack the Dog]

Hello Everyone, this morning today 2/19/03 my family had to put our dog to sleep. I'm not sure if it has been done yet, but he's out of our live's now. His name was Barney and was about 5 & 1/2 years old. We got him Summer of 1997 as a puppy from the SPCA. He had a previous owner so "Barney"' was already named. He was about seven weeks old, and we kept his name Barney even though we could have changed the name because he was still so young. Barney was a Germansheperd mix with what we believe was Labrador. So to describe him, he had the body and colors of a Germansheperd with the head like a Lab with his ears down and everything.

He was one of my babies. But we have good reason in putting him to death. Last night around 10:30 -11:00, he bit my younger brother Alex (age 17) right on his lips. It was pretty bad, this wasn't a little snip, Barney was a BIG dog. I'm not going to go into detail here, but it looks as if my brother will be okay. From what I heard, because I wasn't in the room, my brother was feeding barney his dog food in the basement and got a little to close as to give him a kiss.

Barney's the type of dog that begs for food, he would do anything for human food and is very protective of his oun dog food. If you get in the way of his begging, staring, or take away food from him, your in danger of getting bitten. my whole family knew this.

Barney was the first dog we have ever had, and this is very painful for me, but i'm taking it a lot better then I ever thought I would have if he had died in anyway, shape, or form.This way I know Barney didn't go threw any pain and would never go threw any pain ever again. I was always scared of him being hit by a car, now I know that's not the way Barney would die, nor of growing old and any pains inside of him thus costing expensive pet bills in which he would die anyways. This also wasn't a slow painful death, like if he had cancer or something. i know it was (or will be) quickand painless, the best way for a dog to pass on. There really was no other option. When I was younger I always felt this was the worst way for a dog to die, being put to sleep before his time, but under certain condistions and looking at this in all angles it's what was best.

We took my brother to the hospital right after it happened and they had a plastic sirgin come in. My uncle who's is a bone doctor and used to work at this hospital and came in also. He said that Alex's mouth looked good and everything would be okay. I didn't see the actually bite marks as my bother alex had a towel on his mouth the whole time after it happed, but my older brother, his name is Joe, said he didn't think it would turn out so good right after seeing the bite.

Like I said, there was no other option, it wasn't debated, we all knew the dog had to go. It is very sad but this could have happened to anyone else in the family, and any of our friends and other family members. This could have been me laying on that hospital bed. The sad thing is Barney has bitten before, and not just one but a couple of people. Two friends of my brother Alex, one was one of our younger cousins, he's nipped my younger borther and me a few times, plus he has tryied to bite my mom once and my older brother, but they were not this bad at all compared to Barney's bite on Alex last night. Once was too many. If he bites once, he's bound to bite again, weither it's six days from now, six weeks, six months or six years from now.

We can't put the risk of this happen again even worse to any of us. I really feel this was the right thing to do even thought it's so painful. He's just a dog, he is my dog, but this isn't a world tragedy, People are more valuable then animals, and we all know this. Life goes on and stuff like this happens everyday.

If anyone would like to talk about a pet that has pasted away for whatever reason, I'd loved to hear about all the good times and fun times you had with this pet, weither it happened 20 years ago or...Today. Even if your pet is alive and well I'd still like to hear about them.

There is just dead silence in my house now and i'd like to talk to someone. I' ll share my adventures with Barney in the fallowing posts. I still have my kooky cat named Boots with some very funny stories about her I'll share a little bit later, I really didn't want to make this thread about "Poor Zack's dead dog", as I didn't name it "Good bye Barney" I'd just like to hear about all our wonderful pets that we love, and even if you don't have a pet you could talk about a funny encounter with a squirrel or something.

One last thing about Barney, I took him for a nice long walk this morning, I stopped at the store and bought a bag of Milk Bone stake's for him. Then I took him to a park I live by that has a pond and woods. We always enjoyed taken him there in the summer and watch...well Barney would chase, the ducks. I Rarley go there in the winter, but I had to take him one last time even if it was cold. The pond was completely frozen over! I've been there before in the winter but the ice was very thin before. It looked like kids had played in the middle because there were foot prints all over the snow on top of the ice, and there was an orange shove stuck in the middleof the pond. Maybe a warning sign? I thought that was kind of dangerous and I decide we had better not try. It looked like Barney had fun during the walk and the time we were there, I gave him just about the whole bag a milk bones up to the time I said good bye to him. I didn't go to the SPCA with my older brother, I was dropped off at collage on the way, Barney just stared at me from in the car as my older brother drove away.

One last thing that really hit my heart was that every dog we past this morning barked at Barney, Barney never barks at other dogs or would rarley do it. It was likt they knew he was a dead dog walking. We ran into this one lady with a giganitic dog, i think it was a boxer, but i not sure, it looked like one but bigger and fatter.he looked so excited to see Barney. The lady said "I"m sorry! He's only 8 months old and is still very playful." 8 MONTHS OLD! This dog was a horse! I though my dog was big and at five years! I didn't think it would be right to tell the lady this would be Barney's "last walk". So we said good bye and moved on. I wish my pup had stayed 8 months old.

I just can't believe this has happed and so fast too! I have so many regrets, but this was the best thing for all of us before anything got worse. As for Barney, I'll miss you ya pig! Cause that's what you are! Just a big dumb pig with a special place in my heart. All Dogs Go To Heaven Barney, but I don't know about you, you did a very bad thing, but I forgive you and will never forget you.

Love,

The human named Zack,

My brother Alex looks ok, but this has got to be extremely hard for him, and right now he can't really express all of his feeling. He asked me if I was mad at him, ofcorse i'm not mad at him, this was bound to happen sooner or later. I'm really trying to make my younger brother Alex feel conferrable about it, he doesn't need any guilt in feeling that in the way it happened it was his fault. It wasn't Alex's fault, this happened because of a combanation of things all threw out Barney's life.

Thanks for reading and take care all,

Zack)Rowlf the, I'd never bite, but I am a chewer, Dog.



Zachary,

 

[Cindy]

Zack, I'm so sorry to hear about your little brother Alex. I hope that he is able to make a full recovery. My heart goes out to him. You just need to make sure you comfort him and reassure him that putting Barney down was not his fault, and I know you will. I'm also very sorry to hear about Barney. It sounds like you're handling it very well. I'm sure it will be for the best. May Barney have plenty of Milk Bones in doggy heaven.

And because you asked, I will also share a story about a dog we once had. Growing up in the "country" so to speak we often had at least one or two outside dogs at any given time. Most of the times our dogs were strays that we picked up in various places. The last dog we picked up was a lovely white part cocker spaniel part retriever pup. My sister named him T.L.C. He was one of the best dogs we ever had. Even after moving into a more rural area he never strayed far from home and continued to be a loving dog. I don't recall exactly how long we had him, but in his later age "T" suffered a stroke and lost the ability to walk. The very first time ever we took a dog to the vet. At that time, the vet gave little hope for any recovery. We took "T" home and slowly he began to make a full recovery. It was as if he was never ill. A few years later, "T" had another stroke that took his life. This time it happened quickly. I'm just so thankful that we had those couple of good years with him. I still keep a picture of "T" nearby even though it's been at least 10 years ago. He was the last dog we ever had.

Zack, your story has touched me tonight and I thank you for allowing me to share my experience. It's been nice to think of "T" again.

My prayers are with you and Alex. Get better soon, Alex!

 

[EmmyMik]

Wow. I do hope your brother is ok. This has to be especially rough on him.

In my family, we have lost 4 dogs. Each time it was very painful. When I was little, we had 3 dogs: Nugget (the oldest. A Brittany Spaniel-Lab mix. A beautiful dog), Doo-Dah (a cocker-poo. He looked like an Ewok, and he was my best friend), and Dingus (Doo-Dah's brother, but they looked nothing alike). My parents had these dogs before I was born. Nugget passed away when she was 14, and I was 11. This was in the same month where I broke my leg (I actually broke my leg on her birthday. I remember it), so it was a rather hard month for me. I remember that on the day she died, I went out to the corner of our street and just watched the cars go by. That's what we used to do when I took her out for walks.

A few years later Dingus got really sick. We took him to the vet, but there wasn't much we could do. He was going into kidney failure. I'll never forget the call we got telling us that Ding had died. It came early in the morning, and it woke me up. I remember hearing my mom burst into tears.

After a couple of months, we decided to adopt a puppy. My parents went to the animal shelter, and my mom fell in love with a poodle who was about a year old. We adopted her. Since my parents wanted to get a puppy for us (to see what puppies are like), we decided to get another dog. Not long after we got Penny (the poodle), we got Oreo, a little mixed breed full of love (although judging from her paws, she would have been a BIG dog). Sadly, Oreo had the parvo virus. She infected Penny, and Doo-Dah (who was pretty old). We didn't have Oreo for more than a week, and she died. Doo-Dah was pretty sick too. He was also going into kidney failure. In the end, my parents decided to put him out of his pain and have him put to sleep. It was very hard on me because like I said, Doo-Dah was my best friend.

My parents found a website that deals with pet loss: Rainbow Bridge

If there is any good to come out of this sadness, you have to remember that while your family is grieving and dealing with a loss, some other family is experiencing the love of a puppy. It's pretty cheesey and corny, but it's true. It's all part of the circle of life...

 

[Skeeter Muppet]

Zack, I'm sorry to hear about your loss. I definately know where you're coming from, since we had to put both of our dogs to sleep last year. The circumstances were different. Both of them were 15-16 years old, which is practically ancient in dog years, so in the end it really was what was best for them.

We had to put our Springer Spaniel, Ginger, to sleep last October. She was blind from cateracts and strokes, and starting to lose traction and fall down on our linoleum floor. We knew she'd have an even more difficult time in snow, so we wanted to do it before winter came. She was a good dog, if a bit...loopy at times. It seemed like Ginger was always hungry; once she somehow managed to pull off her flea collar and eat about half of it before Mom caught her. When she was younger, Ginger was also afraid of thunderstorms. I mean, she was terrified of them; we had to either give her sedatives or lock her in the basement at night so that we could sleep without listening to her crying. One time she got so scared of it that she jumped up onto the couch, almost into my lap! And she was full-grown then, so she weren't no lap dog! But despite her faults she was a sweet dog; one of the memories of her I'll always cherish is seeing Ginger curled up beneath our dining room table or on her bathmat in the mudroom with our cat Toto curled up beside her.

Pepper, our black Lab/German Shepherd mix, was put down a year ago this past January. We got her after we had to put down our cocker spaniel Dusty because he had cancer. I'll never forget how we found her: we went to the Noah's Ark animal shelter to look at dogs, and all of the dogs were in their cages barking their heads off...except this nice-looking black dog who was just laying in her cage. We looked at her, and she looked up at us as if to say, "Okay, you're here and I'm here. Are we going home now?" Putting Pepper down was harder on me than putting Ginger to sleep was, because I wasn't at home when Mom and Dad took her to the vet. Like Ginger, Pepper was having problems with her legs; her hips were bad and she had arthritis. There were times when she'd just fall down on the floor for no reason other than her legs had given out on her. Finally it got so bad that, on the day that they put her down, she couldn't even get up off of her bathmat. Mom IMed me at school to let me know that it was being done. Even though they waited to bury her until I got home, it still tore me up that I hadn't been there to say goodbye.

All right, enough sadness. Now it's time for me to brag

In addition to our girls, my family also has two cats. There's a gray tabby, Toto, that I mentioned earlier. We got him from a pet store when all we'd gone to the store for was an aquarium for our lone goldfish (we were afraid she was going to outgrow her bowl). He's a bit of a lazy bum (what cat isn't?), but he's affectionate when he wants to be. Toto is also the first cat that I've encountered that is both hyperthyroid AND obsessive-compulsive. He's on medication to keep his thyroid levels down and to keep him from picking out his fur. We've had a lot of...interesting experiences trying to pill that cat, lemme tell ya.

Then there's Sassy, our black female. She's aptly named too, because she'll let you know if she doesn't like being picked up (which is just about all the time) or where you're touching her. She'll screech and growl at you until you let up. She'll also squeak at you when she wants you to pay attention to her (especially on a Saturday morning when you're trying to sleep in and she's decided it's her turn to have the bed). Thus the name "Sassy." Like Toto we also got her from the pet shop (same one, actually). But she'd been returned by the couple who had originally bought her, because they were expecting and thought that a cat who liked to cuddle as much as Sassy did would end up smothering their baby. But, what's their loss is our gain

And now for the newest member of our family, Miss Madelyne Mae. Maddie, as we call her, is an eleven week-old Pembroke Welsh Corgi. My mom has loved Corgis ever since she had one as a young girl. My grandfather loves them to; he fell in love with the breed while he was serving in England during WWII. So when we finally agreed it was time to get another dog, there was no question that we were getting a Corgi. Anyway, we got Maddie from a breeder a few towns away from my town. She and one of her brothers were the only reds out of the whole litter (there are three types of coloring in Corgis: reds, blacks and tri-colors (red, black and white)), and she was the only one of the litter who wasn't jumping up and down, barking and trying to take off our fingers or untie our shoes. So we figured she'd be a pretty calm dog.

We got her home, and she came out of her shell. Maddie's a really active puppy. She loves her toys, especially her tug sock and her kitty. Yes, Maddie tries to play with Toto. He takes it in stride for the most part, but there have been a couple times when he's tackled her as if to say, "Okay Kid, that's enough." Poor Sassy is either afraid of her or angry at us for bringing Maddie into the house; she's taken to hiding upstairs.

Anyway, I'd better stop it here or else I'm going to be talking all day about my puppy. And we wouldn't want that

-Kim

 

[Janice & Mokey's Man]

A Man and His Dog

In 1989 my family got our first family dog, a 6-week-old Collie puppy. My sister named him Rufus after the cat from Disney's "The Rescuers", and the character in "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure".

We loved Rufus, and there was such irony---my dad didn't want anything to do with him. My mom and sister and I went and picked him out, and I remember so vividly us at home wif Rufus, Dad in "Dad's chair", Tara put Rufus in Daddy's lap, and Dad put his hands up, not touchin' him on purpose, and said, "Get him off me, I don't want anything to do with him. Y'all're the ones who got him!"

Well, well. Talk about eatin' yer words.

Rufus loved all of us, but he grew closest to Dad. He LOVED trottin' over to the fields and farms to be with Dad while he worked, and there was nothin' in the world Rufus loved more than to go for a ride. All you had to do was go, "Ride!", and Rufus would immediately perk up and be on ALERT. Dad frequently teased him this way in the house, while reclined:

Dad: "Wanna go fer a ride? Go fer a ride? "

Rufus:

Mom: "Don, don't say that unless you're really gonna do it! "

Dad: "Heh, heh... "

If I had a dollar for every time that happened...

Rufus eventually graduated to ridin' in the big ol' grain trucks wif Dad---he'd sit up in the passenger side just like a Silly Creature! It was so funny and cute! All the country folk loved seein' him ride around wif Daddy. Dad would even take Rufus with him on the hour-trek to Louisville to the grain elevator, and he'd always tell people, "Shoot, the women there'll speak to him before they'll speak to me!"

One cute thing, Rufus began sleepin' on the air vents as a li'l puppy, and loved to do that all his life. He even had "his spot" at the corner of the hallway which was his favorite sleepin' place.

And good ol' Rufus even stuck it out when I got ultra-silly and put clothes on him. :-P

I was amazed at how quiet he was when we first brought him home (puppies can be NOISEY at nights), but I learned years later that Tara would sit up with him night after night after night to help him adapt.

When my friend Kim would come over ("Red" to my "Gobo" streak), when we'd go outside, sometimes I'd love to put a leash on Rufus, give it to Kim, and go, "Chase the cows! Chase the cows!" and he would TEAR off at 90 miles an hour draggin' poor bumblin', shoutin' Kim behind him---LOL!!

All you had to do in the house was say, "Cows! See the cows?! ", and he'd run over the livin' room windows that looked in the backyard and the pasture, jump with his front paws on the sill, and whimper and whine and run around till we'd let him out---then he'd zoom into the field and round up all the cows, for nuffin'! Lol! Cute!

For 6 years he was a loved member of the family, until the 4th of July, 1995. Mom and Dad and I went to my mom's mom house for a get-together with her parents and sisters and families, and when we got home, Rufus was nowhere to be found. I finally took Dad's truck and drove to look for him, and on the way back, I noticed somethin' in a ditch.

Rufus.

I had a bad feelin' and just hoped and prayed that he just really deeply asleep, but when I touched him, he didn't move. (I'm gettin' chills now just typin' this...)

I drove the li'l stretch back home, and Mom and Dad already knew (Tara was at college at the time), for the people across the street had come out and told 'em.

I--I must've put Rufus in the back of the truck, but I don't even remember---but I must have, cause I vividly remember Mom and Dad lookin' at him, Mom cryin', and Dad holdin' her with a forced gentle chuckle and sayin', "Don't tear yourself up, he's only a dog! " (It sounds mean---but he didn't say it in a mean way, he was tryin' to get Mom to be a little less upset), and Mom said, "Oh, he was more than that, and you know it! He was part of the family!"

Then we went inside and moved on, but I felt like I had to do somethin'. So I called my friend Kim, she lived the nearest (15 minutes away---we lived in the country, she lived in town, lol), and I went over there, and her sweet mom made me a whole chocolate cake all for me, and we watched a few "Fraggle Rock"s Kim was tapin' for me on The Disney Channel.

The next day Dad buried Rufus near the tool shed by one of his barns.

I had to call my sister and tell her the news. We both get really on edge immediately about stuff like this, and when I told her, "It's about somebody in the family", she said, "OMG, which side?", and I was like, "Well, i--it's not either..." and she was like, "What?" and I told her, and she left a message on the machine in a teary voice and told Dad, "And Dad, don't you dare think that you shouldn't cry cause he's 'only an animal' or anything, cause you know it's more than that."

Dad's not an emotional man much, and when I asked Mom a few days later if Dad ever cried over him or anything, she said, "That night when it happened, we were in bed and he said, 'Why did the Lord have to take him away?', and he was teary-eyed."

So Dad lost his best friend, his farm pal, his ridin' buddy, and we lost a loved member of the family.

Then, comPLETEly unexpectedly, DAD was the one to suggest we get another dog!! We all thought for sure that he would never even THINK of gettin' another dog, but he became the leader of the trek.

A couple of months later we introduced Beau to the family (Dad picked the name, Tara insisted on the spellin'---so that when folks asked, "How do you spell it?", that eliminated the answer, "B-O"). My parents picked him out (the most playful one) at about 4 weeks old while I was at church one night, and he's still wif us.

And this time, it's my dog. It's funny how dogs work. Beau and I fought some when he was an "adolescent" puppy, Mom and Dad couldn't understand why I acted kinda cold to him while they loved him.

Welp, he soon became my buddy, my best pal, and I love him so much. His alias here is "Doggie Byron". I really missed Beau when I moved away from home---I took my queen-size bed with me (I inherited it when my parents got a king-size), and back at home, he'd frequently jump up on the bed at bedtime and sleep on one side o' me, sometimes even back-to-back wif his head on a piwwow.

*sigh*

Beau is one o' the highlights on my trips back home now, and he's just such an enrichment at home.

 

[Beauregard]

I lost a hamster once, but it's all right, I found it again!!!

 

[SammieRose]

Zac, I'm sorry to hear about your loss... here's a poem called "The Rainbow Bridge" that has always been helpful for me:

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

My family has lost 2 dogs and 2 birds (one can get surprisingly attached to birds...) so far. It's never easy.

Thank you for sharing your story....

 

[Zack the Dog]

Thank you to everyone sharing their stories, I don't want anyone to become saded again for typing about thier pet, you can just talk about all the good times you had with them if you like. It helps to know i'm not the first person in the world to have lost their pig puppy (one of Barneys many nicknames) even though i do know this, it's just hard to execpt, but i feel i have taken it well. Hearing about the pets you love is making me think of all our dogs, cats, birds, or whatevers are getting together right now in a specail place saying " was one of yer ouners a Muppet fan? you know those muppets that look like live squeaky toy things?"

SammieRose Thank you for that poem, that helps a lot, I think i'm going to print it out and put it on my frig.



I have a LOT of pictures of Barney and my cats boots, sometimes me and my younger brother Alex would use a whole camra on our pets. my mom thought we were crazy! I have one photo of that pig of a pig dog Barney. He went in the trash one night as he always did when no one was around, and pulled out one of those chinees food contaners. Barney shoved his nose right in it as it stuck to his face and he licked whatever rice was in it. The photo looks so funny with him and his big nose stuck in that take out box. That's my Pig

My brother Alex is doing ok, he still has his sence of humor, he has to go to the doctor again today to get a little more work done. Right now Alex is on a liquoid diet so he's eatting a lot of neat foods to help him get better.

Thanks again to everyone, all of your stories have touched me.

zack,

 

[Skeeter Muppet]

Hearing about the pets you love is making me think of all our dogs, cats, birds, or whatevers are getting together right now in a specail place saying " was one of yer ouners a Muppet fan? you know those muppets that look like live squeaky toy things?"

*laughs* Y'know, when we put Ginger down I was thinking something along the same lines. But it was more like Pepper and Ginger getting together with Dusty, the cocker spaniel we had before them, and sharing stories about living with my family! I can only imagine the types of things they have to share with each other...

-Kim

 

[Crazy Harry]

When I was young my famaly had very bad luck with cats. There was Minnie who ran off and was never found, Shadow who also ran off and Oliver who we found out was already sick when we bought him. My mom really got upset over that last one. We then got Oliver 2 eho is still around and seems to be the end of the curse.

A few months ago my mom lost her cat, Mad Max, who must have been well over thirteen years old. He was really thin and boney. The hot summers were always H3ll for him. For a while I beleaved that he would never die. Then one day, he just never woke up.