A Good Dog Never Dies

A tear slowly traveled down his cheek and dripped onto the pillow. Another and another followed it. Soft sobbing broke the silence. He sat up in bed and tried to wipe the tears away, but it didn’t help. He wondered how he was going to cope. His heart was broken.

The worst part about owning a dog is having to say goodbye, and that goodbye always feels far too soon. It’s not simply losing ‘a dog’. It’s losing a beloved member of the family. 

“Nobody can fully understand the meaning of love unless he’s owned a dog. A dog can show you more honest affection with a flick of his tail than a man can gather through a lifetime of handshakes.

He rose, dressed, and went into the kitchen to brew coffee, trying not to break his morning routine. As he passed the refrigerator, he looked at the small poster he had copied from the Internet. The author was anonymous. It read:

” When I am ready

To take that last journey

Stay with me until I am free

Say a prayer to give me peace

Stroke my body to bring me ease

Hold my paw to give me strength

Kiss my face to show me love

Close my eyes to let me sleep

Assure me that you will be okay

Whisper my name

To guide me on my way

Please, please don’t cry

Know that you have given me

A wonderful, wonderful life.”

He sat down and cried uncontrollably.

As he and the vet were in a small antiseptic room the day before, he prepared himself for what would happen. His “best friend” had suffered her third convulsion of the day as a result of her cancer. It was time to let her go to relieve the apparent pain she was in.

As he buried his face in her thick, furry neck, he felt his amazing dog take her very last breath. His furry companion, a beautiful Labrador, was gone. Lying with her on the floor, kissing her now motionless body, he sobbed with an intensity that shook him deeply. He realized he was crying harder than he had in years, his grief so intense it felt as if a part of him had been clawed out and torn away.

She was not the first dog he had raised. He had had other dogs before her, but his relationship with her differed. He imagined she had come into his life to watch over him, overly protective of him at times. She forced him to become more patient and compassionate, work with her issues, and accept her for who she was. She was a constant, steady presence in his life, always there to lick away his tears. He adored her, and she gave him her undying loyalty and devotion.

But now here he was, holding her old, crippled body in his arms and showering her grizzled head with tears and kisses, remembering when only 14 years ago he had taken that fuzzy little  puppy in his arms for the first time and declared, “She’s perfect!” Because she was.

Our relationship with our pets is unconditional love; it’s deep and doesn’t carry all the baggage that human relationships carry. Then there’s that loving, that mothering, that caregiving that people do for their animals. He heard people say all the time: ‘She was like my baby, she was like my child.’”

Months later, he was still hurting over the loss of my Hugo, but I am finding ways to honor his memory and focus mainly on the good times they shared. At times, he still looked for her in the house, thinking she was beside him, eager to give him kisses and whining for his attention. To him, she was a person in a dog suit, a unique being who opened his heart as it had never been opened before. Because of her, he knew he had forever changed for the better.