Frank -

I saw just the title of the thread and my thought was "other people miss people-friends and I miss my dogs most of all"....

...then read the post and realized I wasn't the only one!

Gave Gracie an extra hug - she's already had several this morning but one more won't hurt.

Frank, I agree with your thoughts. Your Baby was lucky to have a daddy that cared so much.

A few years ago when we were away from home overnight, one of our dogs got out and got hit by a car. When we returned home we couldn't find him despite searching hard for a couple days.

After that we had to go out of town for 2-3 days and so we gave up, in a sense, because we had to leave. The first night away we received a call from the previous owner. Someone had found the dog lying side of the road after being hit by a car and took him to the vet. The vet scanned for the chip and called the previous owner who got in touch with us.

We rushed back to our home town and this poor fellow was basically dead. The 2 vets in town had both done their best but they said that our only chance was to get him to a bigger place with more experienced vets.

Just so happened that the place we had gone too was much bigger but by the time we got back to the city it was almost 9:00 PM. We called several different vets begging them to take a look but nobody would do it because they were closed or closing. We rode by one place that refused us on the phone but we decided that they were our only hope.

We went in and the staff said that they had already told us no and that they couldn't help.

We had been praying that someone, somewhere could help our dog but it seemed that the prayers were all in vain. As we were walking out the door, distraught knowing he probably wouldn't make it through the night without help, one of the doctors came through the door to leave for the night. She took pity on him and agreed to see him.

She said there wasn't much she could do but she did give him some medicine to try and help his pain and help him make it through the night. She suggested we needed to go to an even bigger city the next day to get the help he needed.

That night we were watching TV in the motel room with him in a box by the bed. I was on the bed next to him and all the sudden he woke up and started to climb out of the box to get to me. I tried to put him back in the box because he shouldn't be moving around and I didn't want to hold him because of his injuries.

He raised up again to come to me and get out of the box. This was all surprising because at the first vet in our home town, he didn't even respond to us. He didn't wag his tail or have any reaction at all because he was in such bad shape. But now he kept trying to get out of the box - almost like he was back to normal again even though nothing had really changed at all.

The 3rd time he tried to get out of the box I decided to take him in my arms and hold him. As soon as I was holding him and petting him, he made a little whimper and immediately left us. I told my wife to come and help me check because I wasn't sure he was dead since this was the first time I had had this type of experience. We checked and sure enough he was gone.

The little fella just wanted to be held one more time. He knew, I guess, he was finished but he didn't want to go alone in that cardboard box. He wanted to go while in the arms of family.

Since that time, I have tried my best to hug my other 2 dogs no matter how inconvenient it is if they want to be held. Because I'm scared to death that desire to be held is because they know something I don't and their time to go may be fast approaching.

Mark

It has been 5 years since I lost my wonderful cat Hobbes. I still think about him often but not with the same intense grief I had for the first couple years. I think for many people it is harder to lose a dog. Everyone grieves in different ways of course. I hope if time is not healing your wound that at least it might slowly get a little bit less overwhelming.

I also have pet dog. After reading this intimate story i really afraid. God please bless my Buzzo.
RIP to your dog.

Claude's cat gets mad when he leaves hairballs on the couch.

Ricky's last pic - standing neck deep in his favorite pond at a campsite we used to love to go to alone and with friends - stands on my dresser in my room. It is a bittersweet picture which makes me smile and crumples me at the same time. It's been a few years now but I still miss him every day. When I think about him, I start to think about all my other boys over the decades, and there's not one, not one, that I don't still miss.

At the time I am not able to have another.........and I know I will never be whole again until I hold my own little precious furball again and tell him his name.

Last week I was released from the hospital - second trip in 2 weeks, the first one being 3 days, the second one just a same day release. I can pinpoint when my health started to decline. It was during my grief over losing my little Ricky. That's when the weight loss started - when I stopped walking and getting out religiously every day. It just wasn't the same without a soul mate to share it with - and my dogs are never less than a part of my soul. Over time the weight loss zapped some of my strength, and during a time I got just an average winter illness like most people experience (some every damned year regularly) I had a total collapse.

I'm getting better now and realize I have to be diligent to get back to the usually superior health and condition I always have been in .........until I lost my Ricky. Who realized the toll that grief can take on us?

I have a niece who looks up to me and needs me........and now she has a daughter...smart as a whip - 9 months old and almost walking and starting to talk......and she needs her great aunt to go out in the field with the family and teach them about rocks and wilderness survival and other sorts of things that she and her mom only learn from aunt Sal............. But that thought, as much as I love those people.....was not what is saving me. It is the knowledge that it won't be long before I am in circumstance to have another little sweetie of my own.....and he will need me to be fit to keep him healthy and to teach him, to be an able partner.

My boys have awhile yet before I cross the divide to see them again. Dogs are patient souls. They will be okay with waiting while I add another to our eternal family.