I wrote to you a while back about our dog Jack passing away. He was such a fine friend. All our animals really are my wife's. She feeds them and cleans up after them and takes them to the vet etc. But one dog is mine as far as the bond. I really didn't know what friendship and love were until I bonded with my dog "Jake". He was a dog my wife had rescued. He was a puppy who was "dropped" and left to starve or be run over by a car or truck. He was frightened and starved. I had never had my own dog before. This little guy was outside in a pen because my wife didn't want to mix him with the other dogs yet until he got shots and was fixed. At night he would howl a little cry and not go in the doghouse inside the pen. The first night I went into the pen with a chair and sat down and picked him up on my lap and held him and made him stay there. He stopped howling. I did this night after night and after he laid in my lap he would go into the doghouse and be quiet for the rest of the night. This went on for a week until he got his shots and his vet visit out of the way. For the next twelve years he was always at my side. Always. Even if I was mad at him for making a mess or running off, or too much barking. He never held a grudge or was mad at me. Unconditional love. A human can't do it.
About six weeks ago the vet told us Jake had cancer in addition to his severe heart arrhythmia. He would have about a month to live. He would be put down about the time of my fly-in party. The fly-in has come and gone. The vet revised his death sentence to two days to three weeks. If he stops eating, it's the end. So I have been given the wonderful blessing of having some more days to say goodbye. He is on the floor by me as I type now. Yesterday he ate watermelon pieces I threw to him. He caught in the air seven in a row. I'm sleeping on an air mattress now downstairs because he has trouble with the stairs and I want all the time with him I can get. When I went upstairs the other day, he battled his way up and surprised me by walking into my bedroom. I was touched by his devotion, but I don't want him on the steps. Wife took pictures of Jake and I. I say goodbye and I love you everyday to him. Readers I can't express how much I love this dog and how much I will miss him. Many of you are dog owners and you have understood this much longer than I have.
So Jake has lived and he will soon be put to sleep. Death is part of life. Jake will die and I will die and you will die. Jake seems to be hanging in there for now. But it can be anytime. So this, plus the other aspects of my life are one day at a time. Jake is still teaching me a better way to live.
LLITTY :::::+:::::
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