october 24 2004 - august 18 2011
our sweet, crazy george.
it had only been about one week after moving into our home *here* when jerry suggested we needed to get a puppy. it was still "up for discussion" when the opportunity came along to get a free pure-bred lab puppy. a breeder's, in kcmo, bitch had gotten out of her pin when she was in heat and although they thought she had bred with a registered stud they couldn't be sure so the puppies were up for grabs. my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, jeff and holly, who lived in the kcmo metro area snagged two pups and we literally hopped in the car and drove through the night to meet our little guy.
we had a few minutes to kill on the drive and had decided that our puppy's name would either be earl or george. the instant we met him, there was no doubt about his name. but george turned out to be our very own version of marley.
george LOVED fetch. i'm not quite sure that even scratches the surface about how george felt about fetch. granted, he was a retriever so it was only natural but dear lord, that dog loved him some fetch. he could've played for hours on end. hours and hours and hours. a slobbery, grungy tennis ball was his fave but honestly, he'd play with anything. a stick. a log. a rope. a rag. if you could toss it, he would retrieve it.
he pulled so hard on his leash that he took us for walks. i swear we went through every kind of collar. choke collar. pinch collar. bark busters training collar. and, finally, what actually worked was the gentle leader. true to its name, it capitulated obedience without inflicting even an ounce of pain. genius!
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| george (left) and his litter mate, doxin. |
he barked endlessly when we put him outside and he knew we were inside without him. he couldn't stand to be without us. we had no idea that he was barking just as much when we left him out while we were away at work, or out for the evening. until, one day we found a doggie day care brochure on our gate with a note from our neighbor saying "just a suggestion...!" oops.
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| our colorado canine |
panties in the dirty laundry pile were irresistible! i constantly caught him snatching them or chewing on them. there were a few pairs i had to just throw away. eventually i had to stop leaving sorted piles of laundry on the bedroom floor during laundry days. that came to an end the day, jerry came in from mowing the yard holding what looked to be a mangled pair of my panties and asked if i was missing a pair. i checked my drawers (no pun intended) and indeed a pair was missing. it turns out, george had EATEN THEM and then proceeded to poop or puke them out in the yard. so my panties had been laying out in our yard until jerry found them.
george put up with peyson's terrible hissing and scratching when we first brought him home. but he was patient and eventually won peyson over and they became bff's.
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| this became george's chair. |
when we introduced marianne to the family, george pretty much ignored her existence for the first few days but, between george and peyson, george was the first to warm to her. it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. george was a gentle giant around her. when she learned to crawl, he didn't flinch when she would climb up on his belly and pull at his folds of skin and ears. as soon as she was walking, he followed her everywhere. he would lay at her feet during mealtimes, waiting for the droppings.
set him free of his leash, and he was a bolt of lightening. at the dog park he would sprint from end to end bulldozing any dog, big or small, in is way. one time jerry made the mistake of taking him out off-leash while he carried trash to the dumpster. george heard the mighty-might football kids in the park a block over...and it was all over but the crying. i happened to be pulling into the alley as jerry was running to the park. i had no idea what was going on and jerry told me to "get to the park, george ran off." at that very moment we began hearing the shrieks of children all over the park. when i pulled up at the park, i didn't even want to get out of the car to claim my dog. george was darting from huddle to huddle, dispersing hoards of football players and cheerleaders in every fell swoop. kids were screaming and running for their lives. the more excited the kids got, the faster george zigged and zagged. he was smiling ear-to-ear with his tongue hanging to his knees, tail wagging with utter glee. george was euphoric and i was mortified.
believe it or not, over the years our big lug developed a childish fear. he grew from anxious, to nervous, to fearful, to petrified of thunder and fireworks. we're not sure what event sparked the apprehension but for his last 3-4 years he couldn't handle the slightest crack of thunder. he would literally tuck his tail, climb into my lap, and whine like a baby. our vet prescribed xanax, so yep, as soon as rain clouds were in sight we doped him up.
unlike every lab i've ever known, george was not a voracious eater. i was accustomed to almost losing my hand as soon as i would set a food bowl down but not with george. he was a grazer. eating bits and bites here and there throughout the day. and occasionally he'd go through short stints of decreased appetite. so in the spring of 2011, when george was skipping meals here and there i didn't think much of it. but then as summer set in he was losing noticeable amounts of weight and a leisurely walk was exhausting him for the day. we took him to the vet and i was devastated when he stepped on the scale 20 lbs lighter than his average 90-95lbs. we hadn't even spoken to the vet yet and i knew something was terribly wrong. a full blood workup indicated deterioration of the liver. the liver is the only organ capable of natural regeneration. so we started him on meds to initiate and support that process and we went home with a mission to get him to eat. i made him scrambled eggs, steamed rice, browned ground beef, fried eggs, steamed carrots, browned ground turkey. initially we had success. he'd eat something once and then wouldn't touch it again. he was eating less and less, he had no energy, and hadn't smiled in weeks. he had been hiding his misery for so long and it had finally overtaken it. it was ripping me to shreds. we went back to the vet for another weigh-in and blood panel. blood work showed the meds were having no effect and he had GAINED weight and since he hadn't been eating, i feared the worst. our vet sent us to an internal medicine veterinary specialist. an ultrasound and full-exam by the internalist and we were met with the news that george was in liver-failure. the options were few and the prognosis was guarded...meaning that even if we took measures to nurse him back to health and put him through procedures to determine the source of the degradation, he could've gotten weeks, months, at most a year more to live. a life nothing like what any of us were used to, especially george. he was already done and we couldn't bear to put him through more. i've never had to make that kind of a decision before and it felt far beyond my jurisdiction but, nevertheless, it felt like the "most right" choice. we went home to give him all the love we could in one evening and said our goodbyes the next morning. there is just no better illustration of the feelings surrounding that day than this very last photo i took of marianne with george.
that morning when i told marianne she needed to tell george goodbye, she said "he's really, really sick?"
"yes."
"can the vet make him better?
"no they cannot."
"george is my friend."
to this day, she will still ask about george.
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| final moments. |
goodbye, george. it has been one year already. hard to believe. just the other day i was in the kitchen and i could swear i heard you bark out in the living room. so, if that was you, saying, hi...HELLO! we hope you're enjoying a good, long game of fetch.
