 |
Current mood:  sad Category: Pets and Animals
RIP Mr. Louie
2-28-1993 to 6-21-2009
I l just lost one of my dearest friends. Not anyone you’d see on MySpace or Facebook. He was Louie, my fifteen and a half-year-old Chow mix. He laid down and died in the same spot where he guarded the back door for the last fifteen years. He was so old, but still loved to go for walks and chase his ball, if only for a few feet because of his arthritis. He’d been having small seizures for the last month and would get very disoriented, but usually I could hold him and talk to him and he’d come back around. Yesterday, he had a pretty bad one and didn’t want me to come close to him. I had to play in Mississippi and it stayed on my mind all night. When I came home, he was OK and we spent some time together before I went to bed. For the last several months, I knew it was coming and was somewhat prepared for it.
Tonight, I silently broke down and sobbed trying hard not to let Teresa hear me.
For some weird reason, I still can’t cry in front of her.
He was the last living reminder of the house my mom lived in when she passed on that September of 1993. His litter was born three days after Christmas when a small ice storm hit and his mother had little interest in caring for them. I crawled up under a shed, gathered them all up and took them to a utility room inside the house. Cookie, his mom would come and go at will, so I bottle fed them on the days she didn’t show up. He was the first one out of the litter to show an interest in me and I decided to keep him. I named him Mr. Louie because he walked like a tough guy.
He was the first puppy I’d raised since the early 70’s and I was so proud of him. By two months, he loved to chase this small ball and that’s what we did for the next fifteen years. When he was about six months old, he went hunting with his mom and Gator, who I lost three years ago, and brought me a dead baby raccoon and dropped it by my foot. He stood there smiling at me looking so proud of his little trophy and waited until I rubbed his head and told him he was a good boy.
He knew the sound of every vehicle I’ve owned since he was born and would bark to let me know he knew I was home each time I pulled in the driveway. I couldn’t ask for a better watchdog. He was fearless and very territorial about his home and family. I took him into bad parts of Memphis on business and nobody dared to
get close to my truck. He’d park himself next to me when we’d go for a ride and watch everything and anyone that went by. All he wanted in return was to have his ears rubbed, talked sweet to and told he was the best Chow boy there ever was.
When I found out from my ex after nine years of marriage, that she didn’t like dogs, I remember thinking that Louie would have died before he let anyone get to them.
He had a wonderful home with a big back yard and was loved every day of his life. Maybe I’m not supposed to show favoritism, but he was the best friend I’ve ever had, hands down. He went through a small battle with heartworms back in 2000, and came out fine. Other than that, he had no real health problems. The last two years, I saw him age more than before and it was hard on him because he couldn’t do the same things he used to. He was always so grateful when I picked him up and put him in the truck.
Back in the late 90’s, I was at the vet with my cat and a guy in a high dollar suit came in with an older cat in a carrier. He said in a very rushed tone, “This is my mother’s cat. He’s old and nasty and needs to be put down.” The receptionist and myself looked at each other with amazing disbelief as he handed her a credit card and just walked out. A year later, I’m there when an older lady brings a Pug in that’s got some age-related health issues. This dog had been with her all of his life and she just left it there to be put down. She walked off and left it there alone to die on a metal table surrounded by strangers and not even having the decency to let him see her face as he closed his eyes and took his last breath on this earth.
I was so disturbed by this that I came home and went to all of the dogs and told them I would never abandon them that way. Sounds silly and over dramatic, but
I especially made that promise to Louie. I take extreme pride in knowing in my heart that I kept that promise to him. Watching a human or an animal you love get old is very difficult, but if you love them, it’s a joy and an honor to help and take care of them. I highly recommend it.
When money was so tight after the divorce and I was living on beans and discounted
meat, I made sure that they stayed well fed. I’m not trying to make myself out to be a saint at all here. I just know as I live and breathe that Louie would have done that for me if the situation were reversed. I’ve written before that I truly believe that there’s a heaven for them and I’ll see him again someday. He outlived all of his friends and is with them now in perfect form having an amazing reunion. God holds the animals blameless and all of the things you loved on this earth will be with you in heaven. That’s good enough for me.
Louie, you were one of my closest and dearest friends. I love you and cherished every minute with you. I will miss you as long as I live.
I went twenty years without having a dog and have had eight since 1993. I’m down to this Pit Bull mix I rescued in 2004 named Ruby. Last Friday, the vet told me she had terminal heartworms and probably wouldn’t make it through the first round of treatment. She stayed away from us as we buried Louie tonight. Probably, for the obvious reasons. She was tested for heartworms in May and showed a false positive. The vet gave us antibiotics and some medicine to get the fluid off her lungs. Friday, she tested full positive and had also lost some weight. When I brought up the question of a payment plan, he suggested that she probably wasn’t worth saving.
Between the heartworms and this heat, I don’t know how long she can last. Until she came here, she’s been treated like a throw away ever since she was born at the pound in 2003. Some things never change.   
3:26 PM
Powered by  | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|