We still argue when I brought my 5 week old blue heeler kelpie cross home; I believe it was 1994, members of my family argue it was 1995, I also cross reference against my then girlfriend - interestingly, the dog outlasted her and a couple of others by a large margin. We also counted back the approximate of birth, it was the 4th of April, as a reminder, 4/4/94 had an easy ring about it.
She was so small, she was tiny. It could be argued that we picked her up too young, regardless, it didn't seem detrimental to her development, she was well looked after and lived a long life in dog years, the problem, I live in human years and still miss her. I actually believe being pulled away from her dog family and into the world of humans was a positive experience, we were what she knew - her loyalty was to me.
My problem was I worked away, so my little friend was placed in foster care with my parents while I was out of town. This worked well for all, my father was retired and my mother was a housewife, the dog was surrounded by loving people around the clock, a daily walk in the bush kept all fit and healthy.
Around the age of 11 is when dogs start to develop problems, this is when I started to notice issues in her hips, she had arthritis, she had it bad. Now vets know people will spend freely when their animals develop medical issues, I was no exception and we became frequent visitors. My dog however somewhat disliked the vet and embarrassed me every visit, they remember me well but unfortunately not fondly. Still, I purchased every expensive medicine, injection and remedy they had on offer, I still believe the vet knew my credit card, the expiry date and cvc by heart.
Because her back legs were in such bad shape with no cartilage left, I would carry her everywhere, the sound of bone on bone was heart breaking. Eventually she got used to her lack of mobility and would bark when she wanted to move about, this mean't one of us came running. When she spotted a cat and a chase was warranted, a 25 kg dog held to my waist racing after that pesky feline ensured the cat had ample opportunity to escape.
This post sat in my draft folder for about a year because even though my dog has been dead a number of years, I still miss every day with her. I published this post today in respect for Emilly who lost her dog of only 4 years this morning. I was lucky, I had 15 or so years to share with my dog, her time with her dog was tragically cut short.
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