dog gone
>> "I'm sorry to tell you that I had to put Corky to sleep today."
My dog is dead.
1988-2002
He is a good puppy, and I will miss him.
He was a stumpy beast - a Corgi - a sort of sawed-off Collie dog. When he was younger, and cleaner, his back and head were the mottled color of fresh-cut cork-wood, with a shining white belly and paws. He was a friendly dog, and a dog who loved his family.
He was the indefatigable bionic dog - much of him had been replaced, and vets have been telling us that he was on his last legs since at least '94. He survived multiple cancers, two trans-Atlantic moves, food-poisoning, peeing on my father's new carpet, over-feeding, diabetes, urinary tract infections, a heart problem, arthritis, and thyroid trouble. He has had two to five months left to live since '98. The more money and love you poured down his throat, the longer he lived in abeyance of all natural law.
I remember rolling with him as a puppy, and the day we brought him home from the breeder and our tiny cat brow-beat him and eventually befriended him. I remember his short feet plowing through snow drifts taller than I was in the state of Colorado, or when he learned how to use a skateboard better than I ever could, or being chased by him across the long back yard of our first house in Argentina. I remember when he used to herd small children, and how very loyal a dog he was. I remember chasing ducks, and swimming in lakes and pools. I remember when he could still leap up on the bed, or when he and the cat would wait for me to return home from school in the window on the couch that absolutely no animals were supposed to sit upon. I remember walking the dog in a blizzard so thick that I could barely see him, and how he brought both of us out into the depths, and then brought both of us home. I remember when he could still go up stairs, and that he would come to sleep with me if my parents weren't home. He always loved the cold. He only learned one good trick, and it was funny, even if it was kind of dumb. I remember rolling with an old fat dog who loved me, even if he did smell a little bad. I remember seeing him this weekend. He really did seem more active than he had been in a while. He always loved the cold. I figured he still had... at least two to five more months more to say good bye.
He went into seizures again this morning, and they did not stop after two hours and more of his medication, so my father took him into the vet and said goodbye.
In memoriam:
Corky Derksen
1988-2002
I love my doggy, and goodbye.