Goodbye Dear Friend

Yesterday we said good-bye to a dear friend. Four weeks short of his 16th birthday, we sent Caesar onward to the great kennel in the sky. His quality of life had been declining for several months with a heart murmur (4 years), back surgery (5 years ago), cancer (3 years ago), deafness (a year ago), going blind, tooth decay, thyroid problems (5 years ago), weakened back leg, falling down stairs, incontinence, and on and on. We knew this day would come, but at the same time never really expected it.

I remember the first time I met Caesar. He was 18 months old and wanted to play fetch. He got the fetch part down, but didn’t want to let go of the ball. I would grab the ball with his teeth gripping on and I would swing him around and around. No wonder he developed teeth problems later in life. He was always part of our lives. In fact he even led Lynn and her dad down the aisle at our wedding – unrehearsed! I remember another time when I took him up to the mountains in Arizona. He got into a creek and was all wet. I didn’t want to put him in my new truck, so I put him in the back. I started driving and glanced in the rear-view mirror to see him standing in the middle of the dirt road about 200 yards back. I often think if I didn’t look in the mirror, I would still be in the mountains looking for him.

Admittedly, we had not been paying much attention to him over the last year with Claire’s arrival. In one of life’s little ironies, most of the attention he did receive was from Claire trying to play with him. Of course, he wanted nothing to do with her. It's too bad Claire will never remember Caesar.

They say a dog’s tail never lies. With Caesar, his tail was his emotional barometer. It was up when he was happy and down when he was sad. I used to get a tennis ball and his tail would go round and round, excited to play. I can’t remember the last time when I saw his tail up.

Our decision was easy to make as it was clear Caesar was struggling. It was far more difficult and emotional to carry out our decision. The night before, we gave him a bath and spent time with him holding and petting him. The drive to the vet was 5 minutes, but I am not sure if it took 5 minutes or 50 minutes. The people at the vet were great. Lynn was able to hold him in her lap as he took his last breaths. After it was over, te vet kindly gave us a few final moments with Caesar…

So, Caesar is now playing with his friends Vinnie, Darwin, Lucky and Murphy – no doubt bossing them around. I know when my time comes, I will get to see him again. And this time I will finally teach him how to drop the ball when we play fetch.

Thank you everyone for your kind notes and words. Here are some pictures of our small brown dog.

Goodbye Caesar, we love you.