Puck

This may say Laura, but it's Rich writing this:

It's been 4 or 5 days or so and I miss MY Pucker's!!!!

Sad news, even though, in this house, we are on the pet reduction plan. Waiting and continuing to love our dear pets until they pass. It seems never ending, we talk about the day Amigo will go, but on the last day of the year, something happened.

No, not Amigo. My beloved Spanish understanding dog I've had for "ever"... that is now blind due to seizures...or too old to treat for heart worms... or growths that the doctor says are just due to age and are no heath concerns. Poor buddy is still trying to find his companion....Puck

"I" lost Puck....The lost puppy I found while playing disc golf...rehabbed his poor little bloody feet back to normal. Lord only knows how far he was from home the day I found him. Poor guy...

He has been with me so long that Laura and I weren't even together (...and we are going on 11 years).

I had noticed that Puck was loosing some weight, and he just wasn't eating like a normal Lab. We weighed him a couple of times to try to monitor his loss and it wasn't good.

On Thursday I came home and Puck was just so lethargic and out of energy, so I asked Laura to make an appointment for the Vet. I tried to soothe Puck by giving him a bath to hopefully make him a little happy (to be clean....he didn't like bath's, but he did like being clean afterwards:).

Sadly, it just made him colder..

The day of the Vet came. Poor buddy, I had to carry him to my van, into the vet clinic and into the room, he was sooooo tired.

Blood work was done, and it showed that his liver and such, just weren't functioning like they should. The numbers were just way off and not allot of hope could be salvaged. IVs could be administered and at a minimum of a week in the ER he could be back to health, but at his age and current state, it was a 50/50 chance that his body could rebound.

I was stuck. What do I do???

I never want to be in that position again. Unfortunately, I know i will.

I had to have a heart to heart with Dr. Drake. He gratefully gave me time to call Laura and spend some last moments with Puck. That's when I took the picture of us. He couldn't even lift his head to smile like he did every morning...

My decision was not easy. Sure as hell, I did not expect, my grateful loving Puck would be the first out of my two dog's that I would have to say goodbye too.

It still hurts me to think I had to end a life, every dog that my family has owned has been hit by a car, and never live until malfunctions...

I do have to say that he was everything I thought a Lab could be. He love playing with cats, kids, balls and eating pecans with me in the backyard.

I just wish we would've gone to park one last time so he could swim in the nasty pond water in which he loved....

When I came home without Puck, Alicyn could just see it in my face. She asked, "where's Puck"??

All I could do is show her his collar that he used to wear...We embraced and all Laura and I could do was relfect on the great memories that Puck gave us.

Finishing Ribs will always make me remember him...

Run like the wind, Pucker's... love ya, buddy.