We adopted Milo six years ago when we returned from Curacao. After a whirlwind adventure, aquisition of a dog symbolized permanency.He had been neglected and was matted and skinny with an infected claw. There was such a sad look in his eye, but such a yearning for affection. Given such a sad, mysterious history, it was amazing how quickly he became such a loyal, sweet, affectionate and happy dog.
Having never been inside a house, I kept him at my side for the first few weeks, and he became my absolute buddy. Even when unleashed, he continued to follow me constantly from room to room, up and down stairs, to the mailbox, the washing machine, to bed; wherever I went, Milo loped behind. When I tucked Caroline into bed at night, Milo would lay by her until she fell asleep and then come to my room and sleep at the side of my bed.
Caroline's homeschool routine included "walking to school," which was really a brisk walk with Milo before we settled in to math. We often did math on a dry erase board on the living room floor, and Milo would always sit at attention and listen to the lesson as if he wanted to understand pre-algebra.
He caroled through the neighborhood with us at Christmas, trick-or-treated with our kids at Halloween and trotted through our town's 4th of July parade wearing red, white and blue ribbons.
And when I cried on that first day of school, Milo caught the tears.
Last Friday night, Caroline heard the ice-cream man, and ran quickly out the house with a handful of quarters following that unmistakable music. Sensing her excitement, Milo happily followed, and was struck by a car at the corner on the way home.
He died in the car, in Caroline's arms, on the way to the vet hospital.
After a week-end of intense grieving as a family, Monday came. Matt went to work, kids to school, and I could not bear the silence in the house. I had become so accustomed to the constant sound of his jingling collar behind me and feel of him at my feet. I ran every errand I could think of to to avoid the emptiness. But five days have passed. Floors need vacuuming and we're all running out of clean underwear.
So for the first time, really, I am alone in the house.......and it really sucks.
Very sad. So much to adjust to at once, but there never is a "good time" for a loss like this. My sympathies.
ReplyDeleteI know you don't know me but I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am about your dog. Our dog recently passed away and we are still grieving.
ReplyDeleteWe've recently added another dog to our family and it helps immensely, though it never quite fixes the sadness, it helps with the emptiness. I don't know if you know about petfinder.com but it's a great place to search for dogs that are in need of loving homes.
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