You can see why my mum and dad decided to call me Dandy, right?!

 

Sadly, we had to put Dandy to sleep last Friday (May 9, 1997). We'd noticed him progressively slowing down over the past year or so. He'd start up the stairs with a usually youthful spring in his step, and then half way up he'd labor to the top.

 

He'd lately been showing that he was feeling more and more pain as each day passed, and an X-ray revealed a nasty tumor in the bone in his shoulder which had perhaps metastasized. We couldn't bear to watch him making his way, day after day, on his three good legs, all the time knowing that whenever he had to move the injured limb he was enduring heaven-only-knows what pain.

 

The one big consolation on losing Dandy was that bringing an end to his suffering was about as painless as one could hope for.

 

God, it's sad that life as we know it has to end. Dandy was incredibly graceful and athletic as a youngster. Several times I clocked him chasing my car at 30 mph.  This was the only way I knew to tire him to the point where he'd come back to me after he'd taken off. He loved to go for unscheduled gallivanting, and when he did, he just ran and ran and ran. Often he'd come back with the pads on his paws bloodied, worn away, and we'd have to bathe them and, much to his chagrin, we'd treat them with an astringent antiseptic.

 

Not that this put him off repeating the exercise. He'd limp around for the next few days until he'd healed up. Then, first chance he got, he'd be off again.

 

He never missed an opportunity to stretch his legs. He'd be slumped down at one end of the house, seemingly asleep, and somehow he'd know the instant a door at the other end of the house was left ajar. I still have this image burned in my mind of a blur of black fur streaking past me and heading for the open road...

 

One time Dandy leaped out of the driver-side window of my car when I was filling up at a gas station. Next thing I knew, he was careering madly up and down Route 30 in Latrobe, PA, chasing cars back and forth like some possessed lunatic until, exhausted, he returned to my terrified side, tongue lolling limp from a foamy maw.

 

I didn't tell him off; just hugged him for coming back to me, thanked my lucky stars his instinctive urge to chase cars hadn't caused an accident, and chalked up another story for the family album.

 

He'd leap over obstacles as if they weren't there.  I once watched him try (unsuccessfully) to scale a ten foot wall. I spent a summer building a fence four to five foot high around our lower deck so that we'd no longer need to hook Dandy to a run whenever we let him outside to take care of business.  Lovely fence--treated lumber, solid, impregnable.  Cost: $1500.00 in materials alone.  First time I let him out, he took one look at it, hesitated just an instant to get the measure of the thing, and sailed over it as if it weren't there--didn't even touch the wood I'd so lovingly worked.

 

Wow!

 

So we had to continue using the run after all.  Not that this mattered to Dandy.  Innocently, not to say lovingly, I'd made the line from the run to his collar long enough to allow him to wander all over the fenced-in area.  At one place, however, it was also long enough to allow him to jump OVER the fence--which he promptly did!

 

There's a long drop on the other side, and dear old Dandy would have literally hanged himself if my wife, Marilyn, hadn't heard his desperate screams and frantic scratching at the fence. She ran down and somehow summoned up the strength to save his life...

 

The scratch marks remain as silent souvenirs of Dandy's beautiful and enduring presence in our hearts.

 

As I write, I've tears welling up in my eyes just recalling what an awesome, gorgeous, friendly creature Dandy was.



Here are some reflections shared by our friends:

 

Hi Bernard.

Reita told me about your e-mail message on Dandy. I am so sorry to hear about your loss...Dandy was a great character, and he surely will be missed! I am sure that "non-dog" people do not understand just how close the relationship with a treasured pet can become...they work their way into your heart, and become full-fledged members of the family. So ... I sympathize and share your sadness...I'll miss Dandy too. Of course, you have the consolation that Dandy had a full and fun life in the Poole household. Also, you had the courage to take good care of him to the end, including the tough decision to put him down. Your difficult but caring action saved the old fellow pain and suffering ... not every pet owner has that much selfless courage, but it is really the only caring choice you can make, and you must not look back on it, but just enjoy the memories of the good times you had with him.
Take care, and all our best to Ms. Marileen, Sir Zsolt and JUNIOR.

Rick



Bernard:

I'm so sorry to hear about Dandy; I didn't know he was ill. Your loving eulogy does him justice and I enjoyed reading it. It brought back to mind seeing Dandy and Ginger playing in A&A's back yard; how Dandy and Susan were so fond of each other; how Dandy would nudge people for a scratch or scrap. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me; it is a message I will keep. I hope you can take some comfort in knowing what a great home you provided Dandy.

You story about Dandy's chases touched a chord. Just tonite, as I walked Moxie on the dirt road behind the condos, a bike suddenly surprised us. She was off-leash and as soon as I gave her the "Stay!" command (which she interpreted as "Chase!"), she took off after him. Fortunately, the cyclist took it as a game and sped up. Moxie became a fast ball of fur as she raced alongside the bike for a good distance and at a good clip. When we neared home, the cyclist came back toward us and as he went by said, "He's pretty fast; I was going 26 mph!" I never thought of Moxie as fast with her short legs and stocky body, but, motivation can overcome a lot I guess.

I now know what it means to have a dog and would find it difficult to part with Moxie. I had hoped that she could meet Dandy one day and imagined Dandy would be Alpha (after a tiff or two!)

I searched the web for some words of comfort and found these pet-loss related URLs:

Online ceremony(even one in Italian!)
http://www.petloss.com/ceremony.htm

General page with lots of links:
http://www.petloss.com/

For eulogies:
http://www.lavamind.com/pet.html

This isn't about loss; just a neat page with Mission Impossible theme music, etc.
http://www.cyberpet.com/

I think I may have sent you whatever pictures I had of Dandy, but, if you like, I'll try to sort through to be sure I find what is there. Please consider putting your eulogy online, if you think it might be of some solace. It is much better than most of the ones I read!

Please give my condolences to Marilyn and the rest of Dandy's lovers. And remember: All dogs go to heaven... bg.



Dear Bernard, Marilyn and Zsolt and, of course, Junior,

Thank you for the lovely tribute to Dandy. He was always my favorite of all your pets. He will be missed by all of us.

You are in our thoughts always.

Love,

Susan & Don and all the family



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© Bernie Poole, 1997-2009 / poole@pitt.edu / (814) 269-2923 / Revised July 16, 2002, the day we said goodbye to Bengi, another beautiful life, and February 27, 2009.