Dixon was adopted ten years ago when my children's dad came up with the idea we needed a dog. I had childhood pets so I was okay with it. Well, over the years he really did become apart of our family. I remember the time I put him outside because he started chewing on my shoes when I thought I had gotten past the chewing stage. He stayed out there for about a year, never had that problem again. I remember when I figured out he would get in my bed when we left for the day. I had to come back in the house for something and I guess he didn't hear me because he was caught. He looked up like "oh well" and went back to sleep. From that moment on, I had a blanket I would put on my bed to keep him from getting hair every where.
Dixon didn't like thunder and he would wake the entire house to let you know he didn't like thunder. He would try and jump in your lap which could prove to be difficult because he was over 100 lbs. I wouldn't call him a watch dog because I always said if you fed him, he would probably let you rob us blind (I said this before Mayhem advertised it on the Allstate commercial). He was a good dog, I think he knew when I was sad because that is when he became super clingy. I remember a time when he was really getting on my nerves and I firmly told him to take his tail and sit down. He went to my bedroom and positioned himself where he could stare at me and he did this for a couple of minutes. Like he was bad. Over the years our life with Dixon was pretty normal. He was a big baby and as time moved on he became a big old baby. Most days we had our routine. I learned that he didn't eat during the day because there was no one home to take him out. I thought that was pretty disciplined.
I remember having a talk with the children about dog age. How what we consider is one age can actually be a senior in dog world. I would even tell them his dog age so they could relate to the fact that he was getting old. Because my oldest was away in school, I would always tell the other children there would be no RIP's on Facebook until I was able to break the news to everyone. Well, something happened where he hurt himself. The doctor said it was a Cranial Cruciate Ligament rupture which could be the equivalent to tearing an ACL. Well at this time Dixon is ten and overweight and I was advised that recovery under these circumstances could be difficult not to mention there could be other issue because of his weight and size and him getting completely back to normal was unlikely and on and on and on. It was a lot to take in but at the end of the visit, I left with a weeks worth of pain meds and a choice to make.
I can say I have been faced with some tough decisions in my life but to date, that has been the toughest. There was no one to consult if I was doing the right thing for my children and my heart and no matter how much we knew this day would come, having it stare you in the face was a whole different scenario. As the week went on, we saw how hard it became to care for him and the amount of pain he was in because we had steps leading to the yard and that was the only way he could go to the bathroom. I made the decision to put him to sleep so on Thursday, May 3, 2012, companion of 10 years went to doggie heaven. What was worse about that day is my son was taking final exams so I didn't want to tell him because I thought he was coming home Friday, he came home a couple of hours later.
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| Dixon 2002-2012 |
