Sad Morning

[c9]

This morning I got an email from my parents saying they had to put down the dog last night. Very sad. She was very old (14 or so, which is pretty old for a mostly-Lab), and she had gotten pretty sick and couldn't even wag her tail anymore. She'd been senile and slow for a while, but still had some joy in her life... They buried her in the backyard, and may plant a dogwood tree on the spot. In about a year, all three of the pets died. Tigger first, which I really didn't expect, then Winnie a month ago, then Gemi. I think they connected a lot better than we thought when we first brought the dog home, what with all the snarling and chasing. The funny thing is, right up until Gemi started going blind she would still chase Winnie around the house...

I used to resent Gemi a little bit. She was Tim's dog, but Tim never did any damn work to take care of her (which of course is what happens when kids get pets, much of the time). My parents decided that I should name her, probably to make her partly my dog too. In fact, it was jpman that came up with the best name suggestion. It's short for Gemini, which she was, not that star signs have any meaning for me. I don't even know my husband's sign.

She was such a messed up dog, I'll miss her. She was a Lab, but she was afraid of the water! We think it's from falling in the pool back when she was a puppy, when I was still in high school. She didn't understand why the kids (who of course she was sworn to protect) were jumping into the big supperdish! My dad always voices animals, a skillhabit I've picked up, and he always made her like Snoopy. Anyway, from them on she wouldn't go in the water. SHe would stop once it got over her toes, and then just look worried. When we got her to play with us at the cottage beach, she would still only, when severely excited, go into the water up to her chest fur most of the time. She certainly was NOT interested in swimming, thank you very much.

I'll always remember her wagging rear end -- she didn't just wag her tail, she got excited and the entire rear 50% of her body wagged back and forth. ANd if she was that excited, you knew what was coming next: she was probably going to pee. So we had to rush her outside anytime there was someone exciting or new around, just to get that out of her system. It was ridiculous.

She was soooo frustrating. Always wanting in, always wanting out, always barking or begging for food. I have a short fuse, so she was always driving me batty. But here I am with tears in my eyes. I guess I'm going to miss her a bunch.

Comments

[c9.livejournal.com]

Cool. That's what I suspected.