Yesterday was not a pleasant day, I had a lot going on with new carpet being installed and a few other things but what I had been dreading was a 2 pm vet appointment for Roxy. It turns out that what I had been dreading was the right thing to do and with a river of tears I said goodbye yesterday to the greatest dog I have ever had. She was 14 years old and old age had really gotten the best of her, she had lost a lot of muscle and weight and was unsteady on her feet. I have a great vet who broke it down for me into quality of life issues and made the decision easier to make. I know I made the right decision because I didn’t want her to suffer any longer, but it didn’t help me with saying goodbye.
I got Roxy when I was going through a real rough patch in my life. I was alone a lot, my girlfriend had left me, I was living alone in an apartment while trying to go to college full time and work part time. I figured a dog would do me good. I saw an ad in the paper for free pitbull/American bulldog mix puppies and I jumped at it. I called up and got directions to pick up a pup. I ended driving out into the middle of the sticks to this run down squalid trailer where I was met by one of the most unpleasant women I had met up to that point. She walked outside barefoot, in a nightshirt with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth and pointed to a ramshackle dog house with the biggest, meanest, nastiest dog chained to it. The dog was barking ferociously and lunging to the end of its chain while 12 puppies ran around her. The woman pointed and said “Take as many as you want, just don’t get too close to their mama, she’s a bit mean.” I was starting to think this whole thing was a mistake then I saw Roxy, 11 of the puppies were mostly white with small patches of black, but Roxy was smaller and the only Liver/red pup in the bunch. I squatted down and she ran right over to me and that was it, I was in love. That was January 2nd, 1999.
From that day Roxy was there for me and I sacrificed a lot of things that probably would have made my life easier for her. I had her for about 4 months before I was abruptly evicted from my apartment due to a roommate that didn’t pay his share of the rent. My parents were in the process of building a new home and didn’t want all of the trouble of a new puppy in a new house and I can see their point, she did chew a lot of things up and it took a bit to get her house broken. So I could have moved home if I got rid of Roxy, but that just wasn’t going to work for me. Roxy was the first dog that was mine and all mine, not the family dog that I just got to pick out. So I ended up living in a camper on my Aunt’s land with no electricity and no running water, but I could have Roxy. I would go to work and come home at night and walk back up to the camper with my flashlight to find Roxy waiting patiently for me. I would feed her and let her run for a bit, then we would settle in for the night. I would light the oil lamp and read while she laid next to me on the bed and occasionally nudged my hand so I would pet her. Then we would call it a night and she slept next to me on the bed until morning. She continued to sleep on the bed next to me from then on until she could no longer jump up onto the bed this past year.
It took me about 6 months of living in the camper before I found another reliable roommate and an apartment that would accept dogs. It wasn’t the greatest apartment but it was what we could afford and I still got to keep Roxy. But from that point on things turned around for me and got so much better and Roxy was there by my side for all of it. I met L Bird, we dated, broke up, got back together, got married and got pregnant with A Bird. I remember I was so worried about Roxy with a new baby that it made me sick to my stomach, so I bought a CD of “baby sounds” like crying, laughing, gurgling etc and I played them for her over and over and she would just lay on the floor and look at me like I was an idiot. A Bird arrived and Roxy was amazing with her, she would lay next to her and when A Bird started crawling she routinely used Roxy as a step to make her way onto the couch.
Roxy has been the greatest dog anyone could have ever imagine, yeah she had her quirks like being a garbage hound and stealing cookies from your hand if you held it too close to her but she was my ear to cry to when no one else was around. She was my neck to hug when I was alone and wanted to give up. She was a head in my lap when I was sick or sad. She was my dog.
I got Roxy when I was going through a real rough patch in my life. I was alone a lot, my girlfriend had left me, I was living alone in an apartment while trying to go to college full time and work part time. I figured a dog would do me good. I saw an ad in the paper for free pitbull/American bulldog mix puppies and I jumped at it. I called up and got directions to pick up a pup. I ended driving out into the middle of the sticks to this run down squalid trailer where I was met by one of the most unpleasant women I had met up to that point. She walked outside barefoot, in a nightshirt with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth and pointed to a ramshackle dog house with the biggest, meanest, nastiest dog chained to it. The dog was barking ferociously and lunging to the end of its chain while 12 puppies ran around her. The woman pointed and said “Take as many as you want, just don’t get too close to their mama, she’s a bit mean.” I was starting to think this whole thing was a mistake then I saw Roxy, 11 of the puppies were mostly white with small patches of black, but Roxy was smaller and the only Liver/red pup in the bunch. I squatted down and she ran right over to me and that was it, I was in love. That was January 2nd, 1999.
From that day Roxy was there for me and I sacrificed a lot of things that probably would have made my life easier for her. I had her for about 4 months before I was abruptly evicted from my apartment due to a roommate that didn’t pay his share of the rent. My parents were in the process of building a new home and didn’t want all of the trouble of a new puppy in a new house and I can see their point, she did chew a lot of things up and it took a bit to get her house broken. So I could have moved home if I got rid of Roxy, but that just wasn’t going to work for me. Roxy was the first dog that was mine and all mine, not the family dog that I just got to pick out. So I ended up living in a camper on my Aunt’s land with no electricity and no running water, but I could have Roxy. I would go to work and come home at night and walk back up to the camper with my flashlight to find Roxy waiting patiently for me. I would feed her and let her run for a bit, then we would settle in for the night. I would light the oil lamp and read while she laid next to me on the bed and occasionally nudged my hand so I would pet her. Then we would call it a night and she slept next to me on the bed until morning. She continued to sleep on the bed next to me from then on until she could no longer jump up onto the bed this past year.
It took me about 6 months of living in the camper before I found another reliable roommate and an apartment that would accept dogs. It wasn’t the greatest apartment but it was what we could afford and I still got to keep Roxy. But from that point on things turned around for me and got so much better and Roxy was there by my side for all of it. I met L Bird, we dated, broke up, got back together, got married and got pregnant with A Bird. I remember I was so worried about Roxy with a new baby that it made me sick to my stomach, so I bought a CD of “baby sounds” like crying, laughing, gurgling etc and I played them for her over and over and she would just lay on the floor and look at me like I was an idiot. A Bird arrived and Roxy was amazing with her, she would lay next to her and when A Bird started crawling she routinely used Roxy as a step to make her way onto the couch.
Roxy has been the greatest dog anyone could have ever imagine, yeah she had her quirks like being a garbage hound and stealing cookies from your hand if you held it too close to her but she was my ear to cry to when no one else was around. She was my neck to hug when I was alone and wanted to give up. She was a head in my lap when I was sick or sad. She was my dog.
She will forever be missed.
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