So it feels really weird to blog about this, but I need to. I am a cat person.....you don't have to let them out, if you go out of town you just make sure that they have enough food & water, you know they are simple and they are not so in your face with excitement all the time. Besides I never really had a dog growing up. When Kris and I got married we had discussed kids but not pets. We honeymooned in San Diego. On the way home I knew that it was just the perfect time to ask for a cat. He hates cats. I mean HATES them. Kris wanted to know where I planned on getting this cat I had in mind. I thought we would rescue it from the pound. The very next day that he had off....I think it was a Saturday and only a day or two after we had gotten home we headed for the pound. When you are at the pound you have to check out all the animals....just like going into the pet store when you pass by....I hate snakes and reptiles but for some reason you still have to walk by them. The pound didn't have any cats. Nope-they sure had a couple of cute dogs. We got a couple out to play in the little yard....one of them was Chevy. He was SO SUPER CUTE! I wish I had a picture-but that was before our digital days and I have no idea if we even have one or where it would be. He was tiny...and really really fun....Kris found his dog. How in the world we ended up with a dog when we went for a cat....no clue. We later found out that he was between 5-6 weeks old when we got him. Boy was I not prepared for a puppy. By that next Thursday night I was going C-R-A-Z-Y. I called Kris up at work and said..."I know you really like your dog and all, but I am going nuts....let's have a trainer here by Saturday or the dog goes." I don't know that we had a trainer by that Saturday but it really was just a short time later. We learned so much! Still til this day we say "that was the best $300 we have ever spent". Really it was. Get a dog-get a trainer.
Chevy has been moved all over and handled it well. He had traveled, loved the car, gotten mad and sulked when he wasn't invited to go along, he has protected my kids, not let people in the door, bitten the pizza guy (really if I tell you not to pet the dog, don't do it). He has made me feel super loved, annoyed, protected and irritated at times. He even bit Kris in the butt one time-protecting someone he took a liking too. I think that he may have made us laugh the most though. He was funny....in a very sly (stinky) way. Looking back at his life I think he may have been a little camera shy. I had a super hard time find any pictures of him. The one that I did find-well you can tell that he wasn't happy at all about having to sit and have his picture taken.
We tried dressing him up for Halloween once, not happy about that either. Overall he followed me around the house, and it was great-when he was little, he moved faster and I wasn't always tripping over him. He mainly just did his own thing around the house. When we first to Michigan and he had his first experience with snow-he pranced. Oh he hated it. He would cower over having to go out in it and use the bathroom. It took a snowball fight to get him used to it. He even had a few people that he just loved....when my dad or Kris' dad would come for a visit, we had to let the dog outside to great them. He would just get so excited he would piddle on the floor. Lately he has been constant mess. He learned that Evan would feed him if hung out around the high chair-which also means that we constantly being pelted by something. The last experience was strawberry yogurt-nice pink splats on his black fur. I would really love another dog just like him.....I mean-JUST like him. Stinky gas and all.
Sunday we came home from church and by the end of the evening he made a couple of messes in the house. Poor dog not feel good at all-not acting different, but you don't vomit for nothing. I notice that in one of his piles there was a corn cob. So I got on-line and googled "my dog ate a corn cob". The many message board that came up basically said that he would either pass it or he needed surgery. The signs we needed to look for were vomiting, diarrhea, not wanting to eat or drink, discomfort. If the dog had these signs to rush him to the vet. When did we have corn??? A week before-an entire week! By the next morning he had gotten sick two more times and was just not himself-we got him into a vet and sure enough corn cob on the x-rays. Bowel blockage. We did have the option to do surgery. BUT he is (was) old. There could be complications with anesthesia, and the vet really wouldn't know what he was in for until he got in there.....he bowel was already really swollen. The minimum surgery cost would be $1,200, going up for any complications. He was old. It was better just put him to sleep. We asked if there was something that could be done to comfort him so that we could take him and give the kids a chance to say good-bye then bring him back in the evening.
Nothing like coming home from your very last day of school and hearing that you dog is going to die. I warned them the day before that he was sick...really sick. After we told the kids.....Elaine was upset and started to cry, Drew said "cool can we get a new dog?". Izzy was okay for a bit and then she ended up being the one that took it the hardest. Evan, he is asking about the dog from time to time but doesn't really get it. I made sure that kids got some pictures with him before I took him in. He still tried to slyly walk out the picture.
The girls spent time making cards for the dog. I took them with me. He was such a trooper. I have had this experience before, and this time it was different, he was peaceful. The funny thing, he seemed like he knew what was happening and was ready. The vet assistant came in and put a blanket on the floor...he wouldn't lay on it. He found himself a comfy spot on the floor and that was it- right beside the chair I was sitting in and smashed up against the door. When the vet came in and looked at the dog, in his selected very odd spot in the room...I shrugged and said "at this point he gets to pick his spot". Right now I am missing his ears-odd thing I know but they were super soft and I didn't touch them much...
He will be missed, but it was time....soon than we expected, and really not at all how we thought it would happen....come on it was CORN! We will get a new dog soon. The kids are really looking forward to it.
