Saying Goodbye

This morning I took Velvet to the vet for the last time. She just was looking worse, and it wasn't fair to her. She was such an awesome dog. She had 14 amazing years, and was the most peace loving dog you would have ever met.

When I was ten our friend found this little black puppy dumped of in a park called The Elks in northwest Pennsylvania. We begged my mom to keep her since our friend couldn't, and mom finally gave in. We still laugh about how I was convinced that she was part lab or something, dad called her the lowest common denominator, or Eve of the dog world. Shortly after we got her she was dehydrated and sick, and so we gave IV fluids under her skin twice a day at home per the vet, because we couldn't spend the money to have the vet do it. She lived. She got Pancreatitis several times also, but still lived. Actually mom was convinced that the dog would never die, and she'd be vacuuming up loads of black dog hair the rest of her life.

Girth (as dad affectionately called her in the later years when she was fat) was a survivor. She came and lived with me my senior year of school, and has been my faithful buddy for all these years. When she was younger I got her Therapy Dog title, and we visited nursing homes. While she could be obedient she often chose not to be. She loved to chew Victoria Secret underwear, and once she stole multiple pairs out of my dirty clothes, chewed them, then put them back into the pile....I was sooooooo mad when I found them as I pulled the underwear out of the dryer only to realize that they were not intact. From that day on I was convinced the dog was a deceptive beast...haha. For all her faults though she was a good guard dog, and friend. I remember this one time - she use to hate any physical contact between humans - so my dad would purposely come home hug mom, and kiss her in plain sight of Velvet who would bark and carry on till they stopped. Well one day my dad surprised mom, and she started squealing, we were giggling, but Velvet didn't think it was funny. She came up behind him and nipped him in the leg, hahaha it worked, he stopped. I know that you don't care about the poor dog, but I guess I had to vent somewhere, and I wanted to be able to look back and remember her. The house seems really lonely right now, and yea I've used enough Kleenex to take stock in the company, but I am glad for the memories, and I'm even more glad that God gave us such wonderful companions who always listen, and never break your heart until they aren't there anymore.