4th January 2004

Old Dog…

posted in The Proprietor |

Tomorrow may be the day that I have Maggie put down. She’s 16 years and seven months old. In Berkeley Paul and Dodie had a Queensland Heeler named Dunny. They exercised Dunny by driving around the block while he chased the car. They mated Dunny to an Australian Shepherd named Opus and out of that mating came our sweet Magnum Opus, Maggie for short.

Maggie never liked riding in the car. For the first few years we could count on her to toss her cookies in the back seat whenever we went anywhere. Luckily we had a garbage dog, Sutro (a beagle Queensland heeler mix). Sutro could be counted on to clean up Maggie’s mess. Sutro had the brains of the Heeler and the biddableness of the beagle. She knew what she wanted, she acknowledged what we wanted, and how nice for all concerned if these things were congruent.

Over the years Maggie grew to enjoy travel… unlike corporate types she understood that it wasn’t about the journey, it was the destination. She’d get in the car in Berkeley, suffer in silence for some length of time, then get out of the car in the mountains and flip snow in the air with her nose. She also enjoyed the beach. Dogs don’t have nice habits. That’s how it is. Don’t get me started about dogs and the cat box. Anyway, every dog I’ve ever known has enjoyed a nice roll in something organic and smelly and dead. Or in raccoon poop. Or in the manure pile. Dogs don’t take time to smell the roses. They’re simply more bucolic than pastoral. But Maggie holds our family record for best roll in a dead thing.

We were at the ranger station near the marine mammal center at the Point Reyes Seashore entrance beyond Bolinas. We heard on the ranger’s radio that there was a dead blue whale on the tide and it looked like it would come ashore at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. How many dead bluie whales do you see in this life? We called the dogs to the car and headed down to Ocean Beach. It was sure enough there, and it had been dead for some time. So while the corpse was huge, it was also sort of… well, it was decomposing. These huge hunks of whale blubber were washed up on the beach for a long way in both directions. It was dog heaven. Major Maggie rollage occurred. The car smelled for days after that.

Maggie is one of those beasts that reminds you that Dog is goD spelled backwards. She has ever been my faithful companion. We’ve cared for her over the past year like the family member she is. An aspirin and a dose of phenylpropanolamine every morning and evening. She started out taking these pills disguised in little pieces of hot dogs. She’s graduated to the deli counter. Now she gets them in rolls of sliced ham. In fact, until today, when we boiled her up a pot roast, the ham and some slices of sausages were the only food she was eating. right now it seems like she enjoys a few bites of roast beef from time to time, which gives me a crazy hope that I can put some meat back on her bones by feeding her pot roast. Won’t happen. She’s too weak to climb the stairs, up or down. I carry her up at night and then carry her down in the morning to let her out.

The last few nights she’s been so confused that when she got up to change resting positions she walked into the side of our bed and kept trying to move forward, unaware that she’d encountered an obstacle. In other words, there are now mechanical wind-up toys with more logic power than she sometimes demonstrates.

I could wait a few more days. I could wait until she was clearly in pain. But she wouldn’t have survived this long without my care and it’s my responsibility to discern what the right thing is and do it for her. This weekend, it seems like the right thing is to take her to the vet tomorrow morning and have her put down.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 4th, 2024 at 10:49 and is filed under The Proprietor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

There are currently 6 responses to “Old Dog…”

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  1. 1 On January 4th, 2024, Stu Savory said:

    We are with you in spirit, Frank.

  2. 2 On January 5th, 2024, ARJ said:

    I remember finally having to take my childhood pet and best buddy Bess to the veterinarian’s one last time. My dad and I drover her there together and watched her go, all sniffly. She was an extremely healthy dog up to the last couple of months of her life, and we hated to see her so miserable and obviously suffering. Still, it was a tough thing to do and I still miss getting her to chase the invisible squirrels. You have all my sympathies.

  3. 3 On January 7th, 2024, jeneane said:

    What a beautiful portrait of a dog with great character, spirit, and a wonderful personality. And what a sensitive and loving owner, kind and empathetic enough to know when it’s time to let her go. I wish we could clone both you and Maggie.

  4. 4 On January 14th, 2024, laurie said:

    I am at that point with a 14 year old lab who every single day has gazed at me as if the sun rose and set in my face. I am terribly torn between selfishly wanting to see those soulful eyes a bit longer, and knowing that true devotion comes with sacrifice.

    I stumbled upon your site - but my heart and prayers are with you…and Maggie.

  5. 5 On February 10th, 2024, Dolly said:

    I know you you feel–my little Silky was 16 years old on Dec. 6th and still active and happy. However, she is starting to whine and I am afraid that she may be in pain. I will call the Vet tomorrow to see if something can help her.

    You are in my prayers. I know how difficult it is but you are like me–we love our little companions so much that we will not let them suffer just out of our own selfishness. We must do the right thing.
    sincerely,
    Dolly

  6. 6 On November 6th, 2024, mcbeth said:

    Hello, we do not know each other, except that what we have in common makes us furr-friends. We too will need to make that decision for my daughter’s 13 1/2 year old past 4-H golden soon. She will be our third fur-child that we will help in to the next world. It is never an easy one. I notice that you wrote this in Jan. so I am assuming that you have already made your decision. I recieved the following a little while ago. I hope it helps. mcbeth

    WHY DOGS DON’T LIVE AS LONG AS PEOPLE
    >
    > Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolfhound named Belker. The dog’s owners, Ron, his wife, Lisa, and their little boy, Shane, were all very attached to Belker and they were hoping for a miracle.
    >
    > I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family there were no miracles left for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.
    >
    > As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for the four-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt Shane could learn something from the experience.
    >
    > The n ext day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker’s family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away. The little boy seemed to accept Belker’s transition without any difficulty or confusion.
    >
    > We sat together for a while after Belker’s death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, “I know why.”
    >
    > Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me - I’d never heard a more comforting explanation.
    >
    > He said, “Everybody is born so that they can learn how to live a good life - like loving everybody and being nice, right?” The four-year-old continued, “Well, animals already know how to do that, so they don’t have to stay as long.”
    >
    >

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