My dog Hope was my sixteenth birthday present.
She is a collie/shepherd mix that I got at the Humane Society.
She has been the sweetest and best friend a girl could have ever
asked for and now after more than 15 years I am having to
put her down due to old age and arthritis setting in.
She is 15 totally deaf for the past year and half or so,
is almost totally blind and has arthritis real bad in her hind quarters
and some in her front legs. I always promised her and myself that
I would never let her go to the point of suffering and now
we’re at a point where I feel like if I don’t do something
that is the next step for her.
She can’t stand in one place very long without her rear end
dropping to the ground. She used to go out in the field behind our
house to use the restroom but last year she got to where she
wouldn’t leave the yard and now sometimes I find where she’s
gone on the concrete part of the drive and that’s just not her.
She tries to walk around the yard with me but it’s too hard for her to
go all the way so she will just turn and go back to the house.
That hurts.
When I was younger she went everywhere and did everything
with me because my parents were always gone.
When I was 16 I would go to high school each day and
then to work afterwards. When I would come home she would be
the only one there ’cause my parents had a condo at the
other end of town where there business was and my
Mom didn’t trust my Dad to stay there all the time by himself
so she would stay out there too and I would be left with Hope.
That was okay. We shared a box of macaroni and cheese
just about every evening and we would go to the park and walk
and stop and get an ice cream cone on the way
home and share it too.
I didn’t mind I knew where her mouth had been back then
and she was pretty clean.
She’s just been so good. It doesn’t seem fair to have
to let her go.
The nights I would stay home alone we lived out
in the country and sometimes I would get scared.
She would see me walking around the house checking things
and she would get out of the bed and go lay by the
back door and look at me as if to say
“You can go on back to bed now I’ll keep an eye on things
for you”…..and she did.
She would walk to the bus with me and would never go back
to the house until the bus was completely out of site and then
when I came home she would be waiting for me long before
the bus ever go there.
She has never snapped snarled or growled at anyone in her life
and I have seen small children sit on her and put
grass and rocks on her.
I have seen kids pull on her tail reach into her food bowl
when she’s trying to eat and she would never offer to hurt them.
As a matter of fact my niece reached in her food bowl one time
when she/the niece was about a year and half old and Hope
just backed away and sat down until we got her away
from her food.
She is so gentle and loving not just to people
but to other animals.!
She loves every other animal that will let her.
She used to wrestle with our neighbor’s raccoon.
She has always played and been friends with our cats
other dogs birds whatever.
She’s just an all around great dog and I will miss her
so much! I thank God for each day that he has allowed me
to be a part of her life because I think she has taught me
more than I ever taught her.
She will truly be missed.
My heart goes out to everyone who ever has or
ever will lose a pet because she is the closest thing to a
family member that I have ever lost and I just don’t know
how a heart could hurt any more than mine does now.
I believe that God has his own plan for our little furry loved ones.
It’s just inconceivable to me to think that when they
die it’s just over. I don’t buy that!
I trust that he will take care of her because she
has taken care of me.
Christy
| Hope |
| Christy |