Milo
I have been thinking today about dogs.
Specifically, I’ve been remembering the dogs my husband and I have owned during our 27-year marriage and asking myself “Were they worth it?”
The dogs, not the marriage—the marriage is good.
Our first dog together was Jake.
He was a Golden Retriever who we found at a farm near Athens, Ohio, where we had recently moved. Jake was a great dog, as all Goldens tend to be, and we had him for fourteen years before his hips and legs developed problems, as tends to happen with bigger dogs. One of Jake’s best tricks was going outside to retrieve our Sunday morning paper and proudly bringing it in to present to us.
Eventually, walking and even going outside to answer the calls of nature became nearly impossible, let alone retrieving anything.
Unfortunately, we didn’t recognize his discomfort until he was in severe pain. When we took him to our family veterinarian, we were told that there was nothing they could do and we should let him go, which we did. We left the room separately and silently after Jake was gone, too broken up to help each other.
Two months later, our son in Colorado asked us if we would take his family’s five-year-old Papillon, Timmy.
Timmy had come from his sister-in-law in North Dakota and, while they loved him, Timmy did not fit into his family’s lifestyle, which included two other large dogs who could safely roam their forty-acre property without supervision as well as three young children whose activities kept everyone on the go.
Knowing that we were grieving the loss of Jake, they thought that Timmy might be a better fit for us than them. After thinking about it, my husband and I decided we might have room in our lives and our hearts for Timmy.
Consequently, Timmy took his first and only airplane ride from Colorado to Detroit, accompanied by my son and his then 6-year old daughter, Hannah.
Timmy proved to be a fine match for us.
We enjoyed his huge Papillon ears, his prodigious jumping abilities, his snuggling, and his built-in alarm clock that required us to be in bed by 9:00 p.m., rain or shine. For nearly ten years, Timmy had a great life with us and we with him. As he aged, he developed a deteriorating spine and eventually our veterinarian said that there wasn’t anything more he could do.
We hoped for the best until his pain increased to the point where we knew we had to let him go and we did.
Time passed, and we almost got used to being dog-less.
We couldn’t face the thought of losing another furry friend. We didn’t look for another dog, but one came looking for us.
When a friend found what she thought was a Papillon wandering the streets of her town without identification, she thought of us and asked if we might want another Papillon.
We were intrigued and agreed to let him visit for a weekend.
That’s how Milo came to live with us.
He was scruffy and a bit antisocial at first. He also had two missing teeth, and a healing broken jaw, and was definitely not a Papillon –
Milo was our first true “rescue” dog, an old guy with hidden charms and we loved him even though most others didn’t. For almost a year and a half, Milo lived with us and enjoyed our company as we enjoyed his.
One night, we returned from a party and didn’t see him when we came through the front door.
We called his name but got no response. As we walked through the house, we found Milo lying in the hallway with a smile on his toothless face.
He had wandered down to the hall to an area with low lights and soft carpet, laid down, and was gone. I carefully picked him up and held his little body for nearly an hour.
There were no tears, just a thank you and goodbye.
As to the question, were the dogs worth it?
My husband and I both say “Definitely.”
We loved them all and they all taught us a lesson about letting go.
By the way, the story goes on…..
We now have Fred, a two-year old Papillon with big ears.
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