Kodi

Today was a bad day: My dog Kodi died.

My Pomeranian was 18 years old and I had him with me for the past ten years.  He had belonged to my son and his girlfriend.  The girlfriend broke up with my son and took Kodi with her.  A few years later she could no longer care for the dog and offered him to us.  We readily agreed and took him in.

Kodi was 18 years old as of April of this year.  He finally started showing and feeling his age and had trouble walking.  He began having breathing problems as well and often whimpered in pain.  My wife took him into the vets to see if anything could be done to prolong his life.  An Xray showed he had developed a large obstruction on his lungs.  It was time to let him go and he died in my wife's arms as the vet administered the fatal dose.

So now we must cope with the grief, seeing all the things that remind us of him, his blankets, his food bowl, the green patch of grass in the backyard where he did his business.  Knowing that we will never see him again, or pet him, feel his fur, or hear him bark or beg for treats. 

It hurts, but our grief is somewhat lessened by the fact that we could see his death coming, and it was not unexpected and not a shock.  The best aspects of this is that he is no longer in pain, that we know we gave him so much love and that we did everything we could to both prolong his life and free him from pain.

It’s February First and it’s still early for tax preparation.  So I sit here waiting for my last client of the day.

https://youtu.be/NRRFKdlHPx4

After neglecting this blog for nine months, I am posting regularly again.  The reason is that I use my iPad far more than my laptop, and I finally have an app that allows me to post from my iPad.

The most beloved dog of my life died on October 6. Bogie was my constant companion for 12 years, dying of lung cancer at the age of 14.  My grief over his loss has been the worst of my life and the pain deep and terrible.

Sometimes enthusiastic, cheerful people are very annoying to us grouches.  This little dog expresses my feelings exactly.  (Found on Facebook)

"Try It, MO-FO!"

The Obamabots thought they would besmirch Romney with a tale of how Romney once put his dog in a crate, strapped the crate to the top of the car, and took off on vacation (or something).  The poor pooch was subjected to a confined space and maybe wind blew in its face; omigod, I am so (not) appalled.

Now it has come to light that Obama, as a young child, ate dog in Indonesia when it was served to him by his parents at suppertime.  It this an important factoid in the 2012 Presidential Elections?  Not on your life.  Such silly arguments reduce the campaign to childish taunts and counter-taunts.  Grow up.

Lots of cultures have eaten, or still eat, dog meat.  In one region of the Philippines the locals eat dog.  American Indians are said to have eaten dog (remember "Little Big Man"?).  I once played in a Hawaiian band and one of the band members told me he had attended a luau in Hawaii one night, and when he went behind a shed to relieve himself, he found the heads of four dogs.  Then  he realized what he had been eating.

Just for the record, I don't eat dogs.  I love dogs, would never bite one just to get my picture in the papers.

This is one of those "Awwww" photos that people are always emailing to you with unverifiable stories about them.  I usually discard such emails with extreme prejudice; however, I love dogs and I love traditional Christmas scenes.  So whether the accompanying tale is true or not, I don't know (Snopes is silent on it).

The apocryphal tale is that the pooch was an abandoned dog who sought a warm place to sleep for the night, so crawled into this manger scene and cuddled up with the baby Jesus figure.  Someone later found a home for the dog.  Anyone who would abandon a dog of such beauty is a Grinch for sure.

From the U.K. Mail Online:

Target the dog lived through explosions in war-torn Afghanistan, saved the lives of U.S. soldiers and was featured on Oprah - but she couldn't survive a brief stay at an Arizona animal shelter.

An employee at the Pinal County facility was today on administrative leave after euthanizing the shepherd mix by mistake.

'When it comes to euthanizing an animal, there are some clear-cut procedures to follow,' said Ruth Stalter, director of the Animal Care And Control centre.

'Based on my preliminary investigation, our employee did not follow those procedures.'
....

The idiot who killed the dog is someone I would personally love to horsewhip, but the army sergeant who adopted the dog is partially to blame.  He did not license the dog nor get a microchip for it, either of which would have quickly identified the dog to the shelter and saved its life.

Dogs are such loving, loyal and trusting animals, and often we simply do not deserve them.

Two of my sons came home for the weekend, one from Los Angeles and the other from Washington State. The son from L.A. brought his new dog with him, a Sheltie mix that he rescued from the pound. The dog "Bogey" is very gentle and sweet but very protective of my son. He's a beautiful dog with a beige colored head and a black body, similar to the coloring of a German Shepherd.

It's great having the boys home for a couple of days and great to have a dog in the house again. Bogey will be staying with us for a couple of weeks while our son goes snowboarding.