One less mouth to feed.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am an animal lover. Anyone who knows me WELL knows just exactly what that means. To give you a hint- I can't even watch nature shows because the animals eat each other, or fight each other, and I don't like seeing them get hurt. Bugs I don't care about- they are just gross. But animals I have a tender place for. I always have.

So don't ask me why, 4 years ago, when the family dog was dying I was the one chosen to go have him put down. That never made much sense to me. I was the one (besides mom) that was most tender about him.

And so I am still sad even as I type this. A couple weeks ago the husband had to put down his family dog. So if you ask the family- they would say the dog was his. And maybe that's true. But technically- it was the family's. He just liked the husband best. And because the children & I "belong"to the husband, he liked us as well. He was a good dog. Somewhat of a mutt. We never knew what he was for sure. But we THOUGHT he was some sort of Border Collie mix. He was VERY territorial. And didn't like most people. Hence- most people didn't like him. I'm pretty sure he's the reason my 12 year old niece is afraid of dogs. And he HATED men....except the husband. But still- a very good dog! He kept the yard free of, well, anything that happened to come into it. We had a neighbor whose ball came over the fence one time, and he was dumb enough to jump over and try to get it himself. With us standing there watching. Telling him not to. He ran REALLY fast and jumped right back over. Good thing the dog didn't get him. Because he was NOT thrilled to have someone (especially of the male gender) in HIS yard.

When we got home from Virginia we brought him to live at our house. And over the last few months we noticed him slowly deteriorating. The husband said it was age and not because he wasn't happy here. I agree. He was always happiest wherever the husband was. He lost a ton of weight. And he was not eating. The birds ate more of his food than he did. And then we noticed his stomach bloating. It stayed that way for about a week before we decided that something needed to be done. We know that would kill him if being old didn't. And so the husband decided he would put the dog down. I had to go to the store. I took the kids, and when we got home the husband and the dog were gone. The husband buried him at his parent's house. Which is only fitting since that is where he lived his life. And I cried. And the girl cried when we told her. And that made me cry more.

Sad- that day I felt a little relieved- I am such an animal lover that it made me feel guilty that he was an outside dog and the little dogs got to be inside. Now I don't have to worry about him out there all by himself. And then I realized- Spencer has been a member of the husband's family longer than I have. And my next thought was- If he is going, my little dogs (whom I feel more for) are not far off.

SPENCER
1996*-2008
*We don't know his exact age- he was found as a puppy, wandering down the road, by the husband's aunt

" I have sometimes thought of the final cause of dogs having such short lives and I am quite satisfied it is in compassion to the human race; for if we suffer so much in losing a dog after an acquaintance of ten or twelve years, what would it be if they were to live double that time?"
~Sir Walter Scott~