Princess always had a nose for the ball, even though she wasn’t always fond of bringing it back. Photo provided. -I saved this story for last.
It’s not like I was waiting on stats or interviews. Neither of them are needed to tell this tale. I wasn’t waiting on a photo to be sent in, or for someone to return a call with more information.
I just didn’t want to write it.
On Monday afternoon, right around 7 p.m., I said goodbye to one of my best friends, my 10-year-old dog, Princess.
I knew it was time once she stopped eating on Sunday night. That wasn’t her. I knew it was time when she spent all day Monday laying next to me in bed. That wasn’t her either.
She was born on May 15, 2009. A Friday. We don’t typically know the exact birthdate of our dogs, at least I don’t, but this one I do.
I wasn’t home when she was born. That night, I was in San Diego for a Make-A-Wish trip watching the Reds face the San Diego Padres. I wrote about that a little bit last year after Marty Brennaman announced his retirement. Turns out, he picked a good time to get out of the game.
At any rate, she’s been there for me ever since. She was the runt of the litter, abandoned by her mother and left to die, which she very nearly did. The medicine made her worse (truth be told, I don’t quite remember the ins and outs of what happened), and she had to receive special medication orally instead.
That, as it turned out, would be a strong sign of things to come. She was special in every sense of the word, living up to her name as a Princess. She wasn’t afraid to let you know exactly how she was feeling at any particular time via a disapproving huff or a surprisingly stern glare.
She was odd. She didn’t like to fetch, per se. She was part pointer, so she was perfectly fine with chasing the ball and pointing to it. Didn’t usually care enough to bring it back.
Her favorite toys for the longest were plastic water bottles. I don’t know if she liked the crunching they make when she tossed them around or if the challenge of removing the cap amused her, but either way they were her go-to toy for about half her life.
She was, for the most part, healthy. She had some issues with allergies and her rather large ears bothered her at times, but we were able to take care of those pretty quickly.
Late last year, I noticed she was drooling a bit more than normal, mostly onto my bed or laptop. Further inspection found a little bump on her mouth. It was removed, tested and cancerous.
That was a blow, but we were told it was small and we’d just need to be more careful with her.
On January 6, I ended up in the emergency room. The next day, I felt a golf ball-sized lump in her neck. It too was removed.
Late last month, it came back worse. It spread throughout her neck on both sides, and once she began to have difficulty swallowing I knew it was time.
Here’s the thing.
This job takes time. I’m gone a lot, especially at night and during the weekends. That doesn’t make finding time to be with family and friends easy.
By no means am I complaining. I love what I do, now more than ever. One of the best parts of coming home at weird hours was knowing that she would be there to greet me when I got back.
The hours lately haven’t been weird, ‘thanks’ to Covid-19. I’ve been working from home for the better part of the last two weeks, only going into the office on Tuesdays to put our print paper together.
I’ve had more time at home over these last few weeks than in years. I was able to spend her last weeks with her, and I’m grateful for that opportunity.
It’s hard to put my thoughts into words right now. I don’t want to downplay the severity of the virus or the importance of the decisions we’re making. I don’t want to minimize the deaths of those we have lost, but this virus seems to be giving us something we haven’t had in a while: time.
Time to unplug be at home with our family. Time to be with our friends, digitally anyway. Please maintain social distancing guidelines.
I keep reading more and more about how the world will never be the same, and I’d like to think that’s true. I hope that if there’s one thing we can all learn from this, it’s the value of time with those we love, because you never quite know how much of it we have left.
"easy" - Google News
March 27, 2020 at 09:06AM
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Saying goodbye isn’t easy - The Clermont Sun
"easy" - Google News
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