Willie passed today. My big boy, my best dog always loved the snow. All his life it snowed just for him. The cold actually saved his life when he was a couple years old. A car slid on the ice into Willie. Willie took off. Three weeks later he found us, ten pounds lighter, with a nearly healed gash on his leg. The vet said the severe cold saved his leg, for sure. I thought he was gone then, so every day since his return has been a blessing.
This past summer old age started really catching up to my beautiful boy. His hearing had been going. His eyesight wasn't great. This summer he lost his balance. When it first happened, he was too dizzy to eat or do the stairs. He and I spent those first nights outside. It wasn't snowing, but it was outside. Almost as good.
February is hard on old bones. Two days ago Willie and I broke a path out to St Francis, the statue along the back fence. When we turned to go back to the mudroom, he and I faced each other, hunkering down, wriggling into the snow. I didn't get a single gambol out of him, but I could see in his eyes that he remembered.
I plan to take his ashes back to Worthington, back to Sugar Creek. Next to snow, he loved the water there best of all. Maybe I'll keep just a little bit of him here, under the butterfly bush, near St. Francis.
This past summer old age started really catching up to my beautiful boy. His hearing had been going. His eyesight wasn't great. This summer he lost his balance. When it first happened, he was too dizzy to eat or do the stairs. He and I spent those first nights outside. It wasn't snowing, but it was outside. Almost as good.
February is hard on old bones. Two days ago Willie and I broke a path out to St Francis, the statue along the back fence. When we turned to go back to the mudroom, he and I faced each other, hunkering down, wriggling into the snow. I didn't get a single gambol out of him, but I could see in his eyes that he remembered.
I plan to take his ashes back to Worthington, back to Sugar Creek. Next to snow, he loved the water there best of all. Maybe I'll keep just a little bit of him here, under the butterfly bush, near St. Francis.