I have owned several dogs and cats in my lifetime. The first dog was a Shepherd mix from the Humane Society when I was 5. He ran away one day and never returned. His health had been failing and my mom wanted to put him down, but at 18 years old, I thought that it was mean to do that. We figured he ran away to die, but we never did find him. I realized then that I had been very selfish and I swore I would never do that to another animal again. I had no desire to get another dog at that point. It took me a little over 2 years to finally decide I wanted one.
In October of 1997, I started working on my mom to get permission to get a dog. I was still in college and had an apartment off campus, but I came home every weekend and for holidays. Finally, on December 7th, 1997, she said that I could get a puppy, thanks mostly to my stepdad who helped me talk her into letting me get one. So my younger brother and I went to the Humane Society that day to find a puppy. There were 2 litters of puppies. One set looked a lot like a Shepherd mix and had the same coloring as my first dog. The second set were these 2 little fluff balls. The cage said they were Chow Mixes, but that they were good with children. I had nieces and nephews so that was important to me. I know, Chows have a bad name right now, but at the time, I didn’t know anything about Chows. He looked a lot more like a Finish Spitz than a Chow as he became an adult. Anyway, while I was filling out the adoption papers, my brother decided to name the puppy Buddy. I liked the name so I kept it and boy did it fit him.
Buddy was approximately 8 weeks old and he was such a good puppy. He never woke me up to go to the bathroom through the night. He always held it, but you better believe he had to go first thing in the morning! He loved me unconditionally and I him. I used to take him everywhere with me. He would ride in my lap, until one day, he didn’t fit anymore. Then I made him ride in the passenger seat with his own little harness to keep him safe. Everyone loved him. I had a great-uncle that always said if he could get a dog just like Buddy he would. This uncle lived across the street and down a little from my mom’s house. Although you couldn’t see his door from my mom’s house, Buddy had this sixth sense about when my uncle would leave his house. Buddy usually laid in the kitchen by the door because most of our time was spent in the kitchen. Buddy would suddenly get up and do a huffy bark thing and run back to the family room where he would jump up on the couch to look out the window. He would watch my uncle walk from his house to the bottom of our driveway and then Buddy would run out to the kitchen again and prance around in front of the door until my uncle came in. You always knew someone was getting close to being home because he had this special bark and prance that he did. I have no idea how he knew because we all came home at different times every day.
It was truly amazing!
Buddy was great with other animals and with children. My husband and I had a little girl in December of 2006 and Buddy was always very mindful of her. They played together a lot up until
the last couple of weeks of his life.
Sadly, Buddy passed away on November 21th, 2009. He woke my husband and me up at 2:00 am on the 20th because he started yelping in pain. My husband called the vet’s office as soon as they opened that morning and took him in for a 10:20 appt. They gave Buddy a shot of Morphine and put him to sleep to do some x-rays to see if they could see what was going on. The x-rays came back normal, but Buddy was in a lot of pain. The vet felt that it was worth a try to see if we could keep his pain managed with medicine. I knew in my heart when I picked him up at the vet’s office that evening that it wasn’t going to work, but I tried. He was progressively worse when I picked him up than when he had gone up for his appt and he had just had another shot of morphine. He wasn’t walking on the one paw at all and it was kind of curled up weird. I lost it in the middle of the waiting room. I just burst into tears. I was told that it was possible that he was favoring his foot due to the morphine, so I took him home. He walked out of the vet’s office, but I picked him up to put him in the car. I also carried him from the car into the house. He didn’t move much at first. I am sure he felt loopy from the meds. I brought his doggy blanket out, but he wouldn’t get on it and he yelped when picking him up, so I tried not to do it unless it was absolutely necessary. I laid on the floor in the living room beside him all night. He cried in pain the whole night. He moved by himself for the last time at midnight that night. I called the vet as soon as they opened the morning of the 21st and made an appt to have him put to sleep. It was the hardest and easiest decision I have ever had to make. I knew, without a doubt, that he was suffering greatly and I knew I would not want him to have that kind of life, because it really isn’t a life. It was still hard to realize that I was never going to pet my beautiful, beloved Buddy ever again.
I had Buddy privately cremated and received his ashes 2 days ago. It brought the pain and anguish back all over again. I still hear him in the house and at my mom’s. I think about him all the time. When I go outside, I have to stop myself from calling his name. This dog was truly the perfect dog for me and I will miss him more than I could ever convey in words. May he rest in peace.
All my love,
| Buddy |
| Lisa Lill |