Hey there, it's me again. I have now been back almost a week, and what a week it's been. I had written that last post days ago but didn't get it posted because as I was writing it, my dog Freckles had a seizure and we had to take her to the vet. Mom says that she thinks that she had been having seizures for a while now, but this one was pretty bad. Freckles still couldn't really stand up after we got to the vet in Payson. She has also been suffering from declining health, especially during the last few months. So when we got to the vet and she told us the prognosis (that it may be a tumor or liver failure, and they could try drugs but without guarantee of success) I decided to have Freckles put to sleep.
It was hard, especially because I hadn't seen her in a year and I was so happy to see her again and she was happy to see me. But I could tell even upon meeting her that she wasn't doing so well, and I only had about 24 hours with her before she went kerplooey. I had planned on taking her on a car ride up to the canyon that afternoon, which was her favorite thing to do in the whole world, and although she wouldn't have been able to romp like she used to at least she would be easy to catch! She was always a pain that way, she had so much fun that she never wanted to get back in the car and go home.
Yes, my dog was a pain in the butt to say the least, but she was also a good dog in many other aspects. She shed pounds of fur; she had putrid farts; her favorite pastime was barking at strangers and then staying out of reach of her owners to avoid punishment; she scratched and snorted incessantly; she was always underfoot or sleeping right in the doorway, and when you tried to step around her, she would hurry and scurry right to the spot that you were trying to stand in to avoid stepping on her; she chewed through hundreds of dollars of hoses in the summer until she lost most of her teeth; she would act like she was going to die if kept seperate from her family.
Yes, she was definitely a pain in everyone's butt, but many of her "character flaws" were just overstated manifestations of her love of life and her family. She was like the id, just doing whatever she felt like because she had such a great time doing it, and then keeping just out of reach of punishment for as long as possible. She was constantly under foot or freaking out when tied up outside or locked away in a seperate room because she loved us so much that she wanted to be near us all the time. Her many good attributes were often overshadowed by her bad, even though she had many. She was housebroken very well, and obedient if sulky while being bathed. I can think of several instances where she has prevented robberies by her barking, and those are just the ones I am actually aware of. She loved to play and sleep and eat with all the gusto of . . . well, a dog.
This is why I loved her so much too, even though I and the rest of the world was constantly annoyed by her. It felt great that I obviously meant so much to another living being, and that's what hurt me the most when I decided to try a life that was so far away from her and the other people that love me. But at least I got to be with her to have that one joyful reunion and then be with her as she took her final breath. I am at least grateful for that.
We buried her with her favorite toy, Mr. Squeaker, in a spot under the lilac bushes where she would always lay in the shade and watch the world go by.
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