Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire I might like this one better than "The Rainbow Bridge."

Relevant today, since Penny and I had to euthanize one of our dogs this morning. The other one has been crying all day.

Very nice, I'm sorry for your loss. It hasn't been but a few short weeks ago that we lost one of ours. Cherish the memories.

Good words.

What was your dog's name?

Sorry you and Penny lost your friend today.

I wish it could be different.

Thanks, guys.

Maggie, a 70-pound black mongrel, has been declining for the past four or five weeks due to an unidentified neurological condition that isn't myasthenia gravis ($300, cha-ching) but might be anything from a brain tumor to encephalitis. She was alert to the end, but her legs didn't work well or at all, she was incontinent, and she couldn't eat.

Her life partner thus far is Webster, a 95-pound black-mouth cur, who is significantly dumber than Maggie but correspondingly more enthusiastic and affectionate. He's a prison dog, named Webster because of the webbing between his toes.

Black-mouth cur, not Webster:

At least we go in for dogs rather than opossums. I know some people keep opossums as pets, but apparently even in captivity, with the full power of professional veterinarians brought to bear on them, they don't live longer than three years. Maggie made it to six.

Sorry for your dog.

Try this dog poem.
...........................................................
The House Dog's Grave (Haig, an English bulldog)
I've changed my ways a little; I cannot now
Run with you in the evenings along the shore,
Except in a kind of dream; and you, if you dream a moment,
You see me there.

So leave awhile the paw-marks on the front door
Where I used to scratch to go out or in,
And you'd soon open; leave on the kitchen floor
The marks of my drinking-pan.

I cannot lie by your fire as I used to do
On the warm stone,
Nor at the foot of your bed; no, all the night through
I lie alone.

But your kind thought has laid me less than six feet
Outside your window where firelight so often plays,
And where you sit to read--and I fear often grieving for me--
Every night your lamplight lies on my place.

You, man and woman, live so long, it is hard
To think of you ever dying
A little dog would get tired, living so long.
I hope that when you are lying

Under the ground like me your lives will appear
As good and joyful as mine.
No, dear, that's too much hope: you are not so well cared for
As I have been.

And never have known the passionate undivided
Fidelities that I knew.
Your minds are perhaps too active, too many-sided. . . .
But to me you were true.

You were never masters, but friends. I was your friend.
I loved you well, and was loved. Deep love endures
To the end and far past the end. If this is my end,
I am not lonely. I am not afraid. I am still yours.
Robinson Jeffers, 1941

Very sorry for the loss of your friend


So this is where we part, My Friend,
and you'll run on, around the bend,
gone from sight, but not from mind,
new pleasures there you'll surely find.

I will go on, I'll find the strength,
life measures quality, not its length.
One long embrace before you leave,
share one last look, before I grieve.

There are others, that much is true,
but they be they, and they aren't you.
And I, fair, impartial, or so I thought,
will remember well all you've taught.

Your place I'll hold, you will be missed,
the fur I stroked, the nose I kissed.
And as you journey to your final rest,
take with you this...I loved you best.

The love of dogs is a double edge sword. I am convinced it is one of the reasons the "Campfire" is a great place to learn from many others vast experience. Dog lovers are good people.
The cutting side of the equation is having to read these posts and reliving the sorrow of losing a best friend.
I guess if you live long enough to say good bye to 6 or 8 good ones you have lived a good life.
I still miss you Rocky, you were the best dog that ever owned me.

Having just gone through this prior to Thanksgiving, my heart goes out to Barak, his wife, and all the others who've recently lost a dear friend and cherished companion, be it a dog, cat, person, or other. The hurt will gradually subside, but it will always be there, just under the surface. Time heals, but it doesn't forget.

Lost my 17yr old best friend last year. Still hurts!
Thanks for posting.

These things always bring a tear. Our present dog had a fit for 3 months every time someone walked by with a black lab that looked like her previous housemate. I helped her.