A Dog’s Unconditional Love

Thank you for all the kind words yesterday about my family’s loss of our dog Bingo yesterday.

Today has been a sad day as you can imagine. As I’ve said before, my dog was more of a shadow than anything. She followed me everywhere, especially in the morning as I got ready. Probably since she knew I would be leaving the house to go to work, she always wanted to stick close to me until I left.

As I walked out of bed and didn’t have to step over her, or when I showered when she normally laid on the mat waiting for me, I was sad knowing she would never be there again. I’m sure when I go home in a few hours, not being greeted by her at the front door will bring up that sadness as well. Her tail a wagging as she was so excited.

My goal this post is not to be sad, but to celebrate what many people have found in their lives. Our Pet’s are our family. Especially for those like myself that never had children. They become your children. Especially after 14 years together.

But a dog’s love is different. I love cats, but they are independent and can have an attitude at times. But that is part of their charm.

A dog however, they only want to love you and for you to love them back.

They just want to let you know that they will always be there for you…

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They teach us to just relax and let the wind blow in our fur I mean hair and enjoy the ride…

Thank you to those of you that shared your story of a lost pet and for those of you who shared that you recognize that your beloved “child” is nearing the end as well.

Fill your heart with happy memories. Sure they might make you sad, but even in death, our dogs continue to show us the love they had for us. All you have to do is revisit these memories.

 

 

 

~~~till we laugh again~~~

I’ll Miss You Bingo Dauber

Our Bingo Dauber

A few months ago I wrote a post about my Bingo Dauber, my 14-year-old black lap. (My Bingo Dauber Should Have Been a Shadow).  I spoke about how for years she followed me every where. Yes, even into the bathroom. If I moved more than 3 feet, she goes with me.

For 14 years she has met me at the door when I came home.

I wrote about how we knew her time with us was slowly coming to an end. Walking for her became more and more difficult. She could barely push-off her hind legs to stand up.

Last night she couldn’t stand at all. No matter how hard she tried. I stayed up with her all night making sure she could drink, she could go to the bathroom, etc. If I tried to move that three feet, she would try to scoot to me if she couldn’t stand.

I would lift her hind legs, to get her up, then she could walk a few feet. But then she would sit once again. Her and I did this all night long ~~ 2am, 5am, 7am, the time ticked away. My little girl was not feeling well and I was wanted to be there for her.

The hardest thing over the past few months has been knowing that mentally she was still feeling like a spry little pup. Her body however, has had different plans.

As we lifted her dead weight of 89 lbs into the car so we could take her to the vet, my heart was heavy as I knew deep down what was probably going to happen.

The doctor confirmed that while other medicines might help relieve the pain, her hind legs were too atrophied and she would probably never stand or walk again.

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Today, we laid our Bingo Dauber to Rest. She no longer is in pain. She is running around and doing all the things she loved for so many years.

Through our sadness we will hold on to the love, the laughter, the great memories we have had over the past 14 years. As you know, even when you know the time is coming, you always feel you have a few more months.

Those of you that read my blog, know this is usually the spot where I spring some joke or “gotcha” moment. I wish that was the case today. I wish my baby was still here. But today I had to let her go….

We will miss you Bingo …. but we know you are no longer in pain and you are running like you use too. When we think of you we will always smile at the great memories we had together.

We also know you will always be in our hearts and you will be the first one to greet us when we cross to the other side years from now.

My Little Orphaned Rubber Ducky…I didn’t mean to do it…

OK, before I tell this story, I am not proud of what I did, and it is an accident that still haunts me to this day.

However, it also brought me one of the best laughs I ever had a few weeks later. Plus I became the proud parent of an Orphaned Rubber Ducky…

About 10 years ago I was out with a large group of co-workers for a “day of adventure”. We were playing golf up in Washington  where our Divisional headquarters were. This golf course had several ponds weaved in between the many holes. (some of you are all ready ahead of me on what happened – shhh, don’t spoil it for others).

At the time, I was still pretty new to playing golf but I had a great tee shot and normally can hit a ball pretty far down the fairway. We pull up to tee off around hole 9. Down the fairway was one of these ponds. I tee up my ball, eye my destination and take a pretty good whack at the little white ball of death. Unfortunately I must have sliced it off a little bit. In typical fashion the ball traveled very far but unfortunately curved right into the pond.

My foursome watched as the ball flew into the pond, skipped 2-3 times and then shot directly into the air sky high. We each then just looked at each other with a “what the…”

We then hopped into our carts to inspect the strange trajectory.

As we pull up we see what we think are little tiny web feet sticking out of the water flapping back and forth. OH NO!!! We immediately assess that the reason the ball flew in the air straight up was that it hit one of our little ducky friends that populated the pond.

At this point I’m sick to my stomach and I love animals, and even have a special fondness for ducks (I did a high school report on them too). Anyways, one of the guys I’m with, grabs a club and is trying from the edge of the pond to flip the duck back up right with his club. What was amazing about this was, this guy was like 6 foot tall, 300lbs easily and a rough around the edges kind of guy and too see him caring so much about this little furry friend was pretty cool.

As Eric continued to try and flip “ducky” we watched in horror as his little feet kept flapping until they slowly stopped one foot at a time. Our hearts sunk as we realized that he was “gone”.

If I wasn’t feeling bad enough, word spread quickly to the 30+ of us out there that I had “killed” a duck. Some of them felt bad with me, some thought it was funny, but most just wanted to tease me relentlessly about it. “Duck Killer” was just one of the new titles I was crowned.

Fast forward several weeks or months, I lost track of time……

My assistant at the time brought me a small box that had been delivered. I did the typically shaking of the box and looking at who it was from. It had no name on it other than mine and had a slight rattle.

And what was in the box? A small rubber ducky with a yellow post it note on it saying… “Have you seen my mommy?”

Like I’m sure you just did, I busted up laughing.

I still have this little orphaned duck. He sat on my desk with his note looking for his mommy for many years. He even traveled through three states I moved from. Today he resides in my home office. The note has since been lost, but his home with me has not. I provide him with good meals, lots of water, and the big metal goose I got from a Steven Covey seminar keeps watch over him when I am not home. He has not wanted for anything in the past 10+ years.

While the horror of the memory is still there even to this day, I can not help but smile and laugh over the whole thing. While I’m sure a co-worker(s) thought it would be funny as hell they actually helped me move on from the tragedy of the day. No one ever confessed who sent it, but a whole lot of them knew about it.

Every once in awhile someone brings it up. I tell a funny visual version of this story to my nephews and nieces using my arms as the victims legs. Sometimes we must find humor in the sad moments of our life. It is laughter afterall that keeps us going and helps us through things.

I love rubber duckies, and I love my orphaned rubber ducky most. And hopefully he and I gave you a a smile and a little laugh…

~~~ Till Laugh Again~~~  PS. Don’t forget to follow on Facebook for even more smiles and laughs!   Fan Page: Laughing At Everyday Life