My Big Dog - Good Boy, Ace

by Emma
(Wyoming)

I can't put into words what he meant to me. I will miss him being underfoot. I will miss him farting at the foot of the couch, sneaking onto my bed at nap time, and goosing everyone who came to the door.

I will also miss him dropping his ball at the front of the treadmill so it would shoot across the room for him to chase. I will miss him opening the screen door to come in.

I will miss my protector and my only true friend. He leaned on me and stayed there quietly as I cried in his fur during my divorce.

He herded the cats, herded the kids, and kept my baby away from a rattlesnake long enough for me to kill it.

He shed fur all the time and stunk to high heaven. He dropped his food all around the living room before he ate it, and he never got all of it. I was always picking up pieces of food after I stepped on them. He never pulled at the leash. He loved everyone and everyone loved him. He is the only dog I know who had a cat who crushed on him. How long will she live now?

On Monday, he was fine, sniffing the other dogs at the vet and limping from a broken toenail. Those toenails were the bane of his existence- I must have spent $1000 fixing them and having them clipped.

On Tuesday he was fine. He played, ate some steak and went to sleep on the couch again, like he knew he wasn't supposed to.

On Wednesday, he wouldn't move. When I held my hand out to him he laid his muzzle on it. And that's when I knew he wanted me to help take the hurt away. He could barely walk and was in pain.

At the vet's I signed his death warrant. He walked into the room slowly. I laid a blanket down and he laid down next to me. He lay relaxed and it was over in seconds.

He was my dog, my best friend. I can't eat, I can't sleep, I'm drinking too much, and I can't stop crying. I will take the pain and know that I helped him in the best way I could.

Ace was 12 years old.

Big Dog, go bye-bye.