Today Was a Bad Day

(www.meowbarkblog.com) — It’s been a long time since I had a genuinely bad day with the dogs, but today definitely falls into that category. All day long, it’s taken every ounce of my self control not to smack Murphy across the face when he bangs my arm while I’m typing, or to kick Pickles off of me when she paws at my legs. Do they do this stuff every day? Yes. And I generally have the patience to deal with it. But today, today was a stretch.

Last night, my mother called. “How’s Ty?” she asked. Her voice sounded funny.

“He’s fine,” I said, “What’s wrong?”

“Rocky…died,” she said, and started bawling. “I found him this morning. I didn’t want to call you earlier and ruin your day.”

We stayed on the phone for another 20 minutes or so while she cried and I tried not to. I wasn’t clear on exactly what happened, just that he was dead, something about a tarp, cremation.

My brother, who lives in the next town over from my mom, put the pieces together for me this afternoon. On Monday night, Rocky kept scratching to go out. And then one time, he didn’t come back. He had a history of running away and turning up on the front porch the next morning, so my mother went to bed and didn’t think much of it.

A neighbor woke her Tuesday. He had found Rocky on the side of the road across from my mother’s house. They pulled him onto a tarp and put him in the back of my mother’s car to take him to the vet’s office. The neighbor said it looked like he’d had a seizure, but the vet said later that it was bloat and that at 14+, Rocky probably wouldn’t have made it even if he hadn’t gone off into the woods that night.

I haven’t lived at home for 8 years and last time I was there Rocky didn’t even know me, but to me he’s still that red puffball who loved to play tug of war and stole sticks of butter, bread, and candy off the kitchen table. He loved the cats, and particularly cat food, and would do anything for a Saltine. He was the first dog I ever loved.

Contents © Copyright 2008 by Kristen King

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