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Ross

rushdoggie

By rushdoggie
in In Memoriam

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rushdoggie Newbie

rushdoggie

Posted
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Its so very very hard to say goodbye, especially to such a good dog.

 

Just two weeks ago, my 12 year old Border Collie Ross started having GI symptoms. It seems he had a hemanginosarcoma in his gut that was partially obstructing his small intestines. He crashed a few days ago, and again on Christmas day, which we spent at the ER vet. It was there we found the tumor.

 

Ross came to me when he was 6 years old. I was his 6th home. He had his quirks as he was not raised as a puppy to be a house dog and was wary of silverware and terrified of cameras throughout much of his life.

 

In his world, other dogs did not existand he spent his life trying to be invisible so no one would bother him...even my Papillons.

I never saw him play with any other dog.

 

Inside the house, he was happiest and most relaxed sleeping on my bed,

frequently making the trip from the dirt in the backyard to the bed

with no stops...we haven't had a nice looking comforter or quilt on

the bed for years, just an old Vellux blanket that I didn't care if

was decorated with dirty dog feet.

 

Over the years we developed a very strong bond. Ross was with me at

the stressful end of my 1st marriage, lived in an apartment with me

when I worked 2 jobs to pay the bills, moved to Washington and met and

married my wonderful DH. He had to deal with all that instability

and change but he did so wonderfully, convincing 2 landlords with his

charm and good manners to allow me to have 3 dogs including a "big"

one in a rental.

 

In public he was the epitome of good manners and willingness. He was

every vet's favorite patient as he was always still and allowed things

to happen to him. As one friend said, he was her favorite "lean-to"

dog because he would just stand and lean on you so long as you were

petting him. He was obsessed with Frisbee and squirrels. He earned a

pile of agility titles in AKC, USDAA and NADAC, even though he wasn't

the fastest dog out there. We finished his CD together. Like most

Border Collies he loved to work. So much so that he would run agility

with anyone who asked. As an instructor he was a great dog to "loan" a

green handler learning a new move because he knew the moves and would

patiently do the work over and over until they got it right,

especially if they had string cheese.

 

In addition, he was a very handsome dog, with his beautiful

tri-colored face, pointy ears and a flashy body more white than black,

and these bright mahogany colored eyes. No one ever believed he was a

Border Collie...some people would argue with me about it. Even after I

explained I had his original papers and know for a fact they would

shake their head and look at me like I was stupid.

 

The last few weeks he had to endure many vet visits and feeling sick, he took it all in stride. Even yesterday he was relaxed and un-scared as our vet put him to

sleep...he probably just thought it was another blood test. While its

one of the hardest choices to make we knew his lifespan was now

measured in days, not weeks and that the end could be painful and

scary, so we decided it wasn't the right thing to let that happen. I'm

thankful it didn't happen on Christmas Day and that we were able to

spend the rest of the weekend in relative peace and comfort.

 

We were right there with him, murmuring sweet nothings about squirrels

and cheese as he moved on, holding his sweet head in our hands. DH

went out for over an hour in the pouring rain to bury him in our

backyard. He's now under the big pine tree with the big squirrel nest

that entertained him endlessly since we bought our house.

 

I'm grateful for the other dogs as distractions reminder that life moves forwards.

 

Goodbye Rossy Possy. We'll miss you and your perpetually dirty feet.

 

Drummond Ross CD, AX, AXJ, NAP, NAJP, AD 4/1998-12/2010

 

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31875_1478450447660_1425745142_31257838_1496629_n.jpg

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ShoresDog Newbie

ShoresDog

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I'm so very sorry for your loss. It sounds like when Ross and you met up, it was the perfect match at last and he was a wonderful friend and companion. While I'm sure you would have wanted more time with him, thank goodness you were realistic and chose kindly and lovingly.

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MyTDogs Newbie

MyTDogs

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Cancer sucks...I'm so sorry. I have been on the other side of what your going thru (as a vet tech at the ER) and I can imagine all you have been through over the last weeks. I hope you can soon replace the sadness with warm happy memories. Ross was a beautiful boy.

 

A quote I read- "Dogs Lives are too short..Their only fault, really." is so very sad and true.

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bcnewe2 Newbie

bcnewe2

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Beautiful tribute to a beautiful dog.

He sounds like such a wonderful spirit, I'm sure he'll find an old cover up in heaven for his dirty feet to lay and wait for you.

Run free Ross the sky is yours now.

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KrisK Newbie

KrisK

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Ross was obviously a special dog who had a special person to love him. I lost my Jazz to hemangio...I know how horrible it is. Run free at the bridge Ross...

 

Where To Bury A Dog

There are various places within which a dog may be buried. We are thinking now of a setter, whose coat was flame in the sunshine, and who, so far as we are aware, never entertained a mean or an unworthy thought. This setter is buried beneath a cherry tree, under four feet of garden loam, and at its proper season the cherry strews petals on the green lawn of his grave. Beneath a cherry tree, or an apple, or any flowering shrub of the garden, is an excellent place to bury a good dog. Beneath such trees, such shrubs, he slept in the drowsy summer, or gnawed at a flavorous bone, or lifted head to challenge some strange intruder. These are good places, in life or in death. Yet it is a small matter, and it touches sentiment more than anything else.

For if the dog be well remembered, if sometimes he leaps through your dreams actual as in life, eyes kindling, questing, asking, laughing, begging, it matters not at all where that dog sleeps at long and at last. On a hill where the wind is unrebuked and the trees are roaring, or beside a stream he knew in puppyhood, or somewhere in the flatness of a pasture land, where most exhilarating cattle graze. It is all one to the dog, and all one to you, and nothing is gained, and nothing lost -- if memory lives. But there is one best place to bury a dog. One place that is best of all.

If you bury him in this spot, the secret of which you must already have, he will come to you when you call -- come to you over the grim, dim frontiers of death, and down the well-remembered path, and to your side again. And though you call a dozen living dogs to heel they should not growl at him, nor resent his coming, for he is yours and he belongs there.

People may scoff at you, who see no lightest blade of grass bent by his footfall, who hear no whimper pitched too fine for mere audition, people who may never really have had a dog. Smile at them then, for you shall know something that is hidden from them, and which is well worth the knowing.

The one best place to bury a good dog is in the heart of his master.

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BustopherJones Newbie

BustopherJones

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I lost a treasured friend today,

The little dog who used to lay

His gentle head upon my knee

And share his silent thoughts with me...

 

He'll come no longer to my call,

Retrieve no more his favorite ball;

A voice far greater than my own

Has called him to His golden throne.

 

Although my eyes are filled with tears,

I thank Him for the happy years

He let him spend down here with me

And for his love and loyalty.

 

When it is time for me to go

And join him there, this much I know...

I shall not fear the transient dark

For he will greet me with his bark.

 

~ Author Unknown

 

Vaya con Dios, Ross.

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