My Past Shadow- Ode to C.

This is both a difficult blog to write as well as one full of hope. Two months ago while I was at the RT Convention, my dog of 11 years died. It’s taken me a while to even be able to talk about it, only my closest friends knew, so this post is cathartic for me. My sweet little dog was my shadow,

my constant companion, especially after the girls left for college. She was always by my side and lifted my spirits. Her death was unexpected, shocking, surprising, you name it. You see, she hadn’t been sick. She’d had a full check up two months before she died. I left a happy healthy dog and a few days later watched her die.

I got a call one afternoon from my sitter to tell me the dog had blood in her stool. An hour after that call she was taken to the vet, diagnosed with a bacterial infection, maybe from something she ate and placed on antibiotics. 24 hours after seeing the vet she died. We’ll never know for sure the cause of death, we didn’t do an autopsy, believe me I wanted to but it was all after hours and since we’d have to wait it would be a moot point. Trust me I had words with the vet who saw her.

Anyone who has a pet knows the closeness you can share with these little animals. How special they

truly are. No they might not be people, still they can love you just as fiercely and I was her people. She was my shadow. I had no intentions of getting another pet anytime soon. I needed time to grieve. Her memories were all over this house. I still listen for the sound of her claws on the stairs. But I had another pet to consider. I knew the cat of the house would need a companion and eventually after enough time I thought I'd be ready to get another dog.

Unfortunately, said cat took his companion’s death pretty hard, to the point he was very possessive of me and a little aggressive. I knew if I was going to add a dog to the household I’d need to do this sooner rather than later to nip such behavior in the bud.

Still, I dragged my feet. Enter my youngest daughter who pushed me to go with her to a rescue adoption event at our local pet store, a place where she had volunteered to help with the adoptions in the past. To my pleasant surprise, I found a dog. One that I adored on sight. It took two weeks to go through the adoption process and I was able to adopt her. However, three hours after I got her, she managed to get away from me and bolted. Yeah, the next several hours was spent searching for her. Mind you, I was also operating on about 4 hours of sleep. See, I took the red eye home to arrive the day of her adoption when she was turned over to me.

She was missing for less than 20 hours. Through the good will of others and my quick thinking to put the info about a lost dog on the local animal shelter’s website, someone found her, 2 ½ miles from home and was able to find me through the website. So lost dog is back home safe and sound. Needless to say, she will be on a leash for the next few weeks inside and out.

The latest addition to the family is very welcome.