A Time for Sadness…

Growing up we were a family of four, my mom and dad, my brother and myself. We had another constant in our lives too…

This sweet Jack Russell was given to my brother a long time ago. A lady was looking to find a new home for him and my grandmother thought my brother would love him. He came to us already named Dinky and way too hyper for his own good, but we were kids so that didn’t matter. 

In many aspects of the phrase he was, just a dog.
Just a dog, who we snuck into the house at night, always thinking we would let him back out before my parents woke up but never actually succeeding. They’d find him tucked away in Chase’s bed most mornings.
Just a dog, who walked to the end of the road with us when we rode the bus to school and met us there every afternoon too.
Just a dog, who crazily barked at fireworks or thunder and tried to attack cars if they blew the horn in our driveway. Indeed, he had a thing  about noises.
Just a dog, who stole shoes, our shoes or the neighbors shoes, it didn’t matter. He’d bury them in the yard, saving them for later. Many, many times my mom would be weeding the flower bed and pull up a shoe. He hid stuff everywhere, and if even thought you knew where he hid something, well he’d go dig it up and re-bury that night.
Just a dog, who was a little peculiar about the type of food he ate, and we always obliged and bought his favorite kind.
Just a dog, who preferred to come inside and lay on the air conditioning vents when it was too hot outside.

But truly, he wasn’t just a dog, not even a little bit. He may have belonged to our family but in his heart, he belonged to Chase. He loved my brother and followed him everywhere. If Chase stayed somewhere else for a few days or went camping with my grandparents. Dinky would mope around, he just wasn’t the same without him there. And Chase loved Dinky too, we all did, but not like Chase. They were best friends, and that was okay with us. Where ever Chase was, you could bet Dinky wasn’t too far away.

We knew he was old. He came to us already a few years old, he was probably born in 1993. That’s old for any dog, even a small one. I think we were all in denial about it, even until the end. He hadn’t been doing good this week, but I thought it was probably just too cold and he would get better and be happier when it warmed up. He’d been staying inside because of the cold and it was obvious he wasn’t getting better. When they let him out Thursday night, he ran off and they couldn’t find him, but Chase was determined to find him. So in freezing cold weather, with flashlights, he searched the woods until he was found. He brought him in and it didn’t look good, but it was still hard to believe that this might really be it. It’s hard for me to remember a time without him, Chase is 6 years younger than me, I imagine he can’t remember a time he didn’t have his best friend with him. On Friday morning, shortly after Chase left for school and mom left for work, dad came home to check on him and he had passed away. We are thankful we didn’t have to see him suffer or make the decision to put him to sleep, even though it doesn’t feel like it really made things any easier.

It does make me smile to think that he probably waited on Chase to leave, not wanting him to be sad. Because that’s what kind of dog he was, always loyal. In reality, he may have been just a dog, but Friday it felt like we lost a part of our family. Truly, we did.

That would be Coco’s toy in that picture. Our dog, Coco has kept some of her same toys for years. She’s so careful with a few and licks them clean at night. But Dinky, he’d get her toys and pull them apart. Find the squeaker and go bury it.  🙂

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