Yes, the puppy that's been my blog profile pic since I started is no more. Dexter sadly passed this afternoon at 5:30 local time. He's been living with our oldest boy and his girlfriend for the past couple of years, but he's still been part of our family.
He was only eight years old; cancer took him. Vet bills to treat that are simply out of our reach, and there was nothing we could do for him. He was supposed to see a vet on Tuesday, but today he was drooling blood, and Ashton took him to Charlottetown for an emergency visit. The vet said she could give him steroids, but it would only delay the inevitable for a couple of days. They made the hard decision and said goodbye.
Losing a pet sucks. Losing two within six months sucks rocks. My wife doesn't ever want to get another dog because it hurts so much to lose them. I'm looking at it from another point of view; a dog's life is full of wonderful memories, and those memories are worth the pain at the end.
I'll never forget the first time we met Dexter. It was shortly after our other dog, Harley the Shi-tzu, died; Raven was about four years old, and she missed him terribly. She would sit on the back step for hours, moping and waiting, hoping that Harley would somehow come back. Of course, that wasn't going to happen, but you can't explain that to a dog.
We started looking for another dog to hopefully cheer up Raven. We looked at a few dogs that didn't really fit what we wanted. Then, we found a little puppy who was being fostered in Chatham, and we made arrangements to have a meeting to see if he'd get along with Raven. We couldn't have imagined it would have gone as well as it did.
When Dexter showed up, he was wearing a Superman cape that trailed behind him as he ran. And he ran. Oh, did that little puppy run. As soon as he got in the backyard, he locked eyes with Raven, and the two of them took off with the worst case of the zoomies I have ever seen. I tried to take a picture of them. I tried to take three or four, actually. But they were moving so fast that by the time the shutter snapped, they were out of frame. I felt like a World War II fighter pilot trying to lead my target so I could capture the moment. But it was no use. He wore that Superman cape for a reason; he was identifying as Krypto the Super-Dog. And Raven was keeping up with him every step, her depression gone in an instant.
The next day, Dexter officially came home. He was the happiest dog in the world, as long as he wasn't left alone. He hated to be alone, barking for hours if we had to leave. So we tried to keep at least one of us home as much as possible. He became a fixture in our bed, and I mean that literally; I nicknamed him 'Wall' because despite his small size, he stretched out between us like the Great Wall of China. And there was simply no moving him.
Dexter made the move out to PEI with us, driving in the back seat of Dannielle's truck the whole way here. He adjusted very quickly, and absolutely loved the wide-open freedom of the farm. After Ashton bought his own place, he brought Dexter with him. It wasn't as wide-open as the farm, but he still had plenty of space to call his own.
We knew last year that he was sick, and that the cancer might not be benign. But he got through Christmas, and we were hoping it would stay dormant. Unfortunately, it didn't. He's struggled for the past month or so, and when my wife went to visit them yesterday he didn't even climb up on her lap, which was his favorite bed for most of his life. So, we knew it wouldn't be long. Unfortunately, we had less time than we thought.
So, once again we say goodbye to a cherished member of our family. Dexter was a fantastic dog, loyal and protective, with the fastest tail-wag I've ever seen. There's a reason dogs are called 'man's best friend', and Dexter was the platonic ideal of that sentiment. We will miss him terribly.
Goodbye, Dexter. I hope you, Raven and Harley are all playing together like the family you always were. Godspeed.
