The animals give their affection unconditionally, and they are less judgemental thread

I plead to the mods.....PLEASE ban JR if he posts to this thread again.
I have no more tears to cry......

I plead to the mods.....PLEASE ban JR if he posts to this thread again.
I have no more tears to cry......

Lol. Seriously though if you are an animal lover its tough stuff to read.

JR, years ago in my college days in Miami - i had moved into a friends apartment (across a very busy road from my old apartment) with my dog Shea. I took her out for a walk one nite and locked myself out. This was before cell phones so i decided to walk her back to the old apt and call the landlord to come unlock the door. We are standing in the middle of the road and she wiggles her way out of her leash. I remember standing there thinking "please dont move". She moved. I looked up and of course some type of limo is next in line - i see Shea disappear in front of it and i hear a yelp. The car slammed on its brakes and i walked around the other side. I remember thinking "please let her be obviously dead because i cant handle a half dead /maimed/ dying dog. To my surprise only her front left leg had gotten trapped under the wheel. Not a scratch on the rest of her body. I yelled - back up slowly! He did and Shea got up and took off. I couldnt believe it. I ran back to the old apt and the door was open (nice miami nite). My roomates are all sitting there and im like "did Shea come in here"? Yeah shes upstairs. She came back to a familiar place - rite upstairs to our old room and was lying at the foot of the bed where she always slept. I followed the blood trail. Took her to a 24 hour vet at 1 am. No smartphones to find one - i dont speak spanish. It was very hard to find one and i remember driving around thinking my ****ing dog is going to bleed to death.
Anyway - i found one. The vet told me - she will be fine but she will have arthritis in that leg when she is older. It set in pretty bad when she turned about 8 or 9. By the time she was 12 the leg was really causing her pain and ultimately was what ended her time here. I will never forget how surprised i was when i came around and saw her "intact" though.
Edit: that is really sad about your son , but i think in someway it helps him to understand life and death - that being said i hope he has a dog that lives twenty years with him at some point. My daughter is six and when we just went through our ordeal with Juliette i was trying to prep her for the fact that Jules might be going to heaven. The look on her face was enough to make a stone cry.

I have been meaning to finish my story but have just not gotten around to it. Don’t worry Hog1, no tears in this one.

AMY – A yellow lab, Bronwyn’s half sister, with a disposition much more Trajan like than Abby or Brownwyn. She is like the others in that she is a beautiful dog, with a sweet lab face. A bit chunky - gravity is not her friend. She still loves to play and has a best friend in our newest addition (see below).

When Bronwyn died, Trajan was nine years old. B/c of Trajan’s age, we decided we would need to either (1) get a puppy quickly while Trajan was still mobile and could play; or (2) wait until after Trajan passed away. We decided on the former. Trajan was fairly sedate at this point and our son missed having a furry playmate. We went to our breeder (probably for the last time as she was now in her late 60’s) and were told that Bronwyn’s mom had just has a new litter. We went to see it and one of them toddled right over to Aidan almost immediately. We had our new dog.

When it came to naming her, Aidan wanted to call her Love because she was bringing a lost love back to the family. While appreciative of the sentiment, neither my wife nor I were keen on the name and, instead, sold Aidan on the name Amy as short for the French word for love - “amore”.

Amy, as I said, was much more subdued than Abby and Bronwyn. She was a playful puppy and she and Trajan would play the “I’ll (Trajan) sit here and watch you (Amy) run around me and, if you get to close, I will swat you to the ground and wrestle you” game. She loved Trajan and would curl up next to him. He tolerated her but seemed to appreciated that she was not the constant nuisance to him Bronwyn and Abby were. After Trajan passed away, Amy missed him for a while but did not mope as I have seen some dogs do on the loss of a companion dog. Soon enough, she seemed okay being the only dog in the house.

My son, while caring for her, has not bonded with her in any significant way. For him, she is just a dog. He likes and cares for her, but not she is simply not his friend or playmate in the way Bronnie was.

Amy is five now and, in many ways, has taken over from Trajan as being the “just there dog”. She is unobtrusive but present. While she enjoys playing and going for walks, she is just not the high energy dog that her sister was. She is also a bit chunky and, as I said, gravity is not her friend. A wonderful family dog, we are hopeful that she will be with us a long, long time.

ANGUS – A mixed breed, part lab, part pit bull, part greyhound and mostly stupid. Without a doubt the most athletic dog I have ever had. Equally doubtless is the fact that he is dumber than a post – by a long shot. Sweet and lovable like the village idiot, Angus has taken over the role of “high energy stupid” previously occupied by Abby and Bronwyn.

After Trajan died, I was pretty much ready to be a one dog family for a while. Amy was sweet, well behaved and, with two kids, perfect for our little house and family. My wife, however, soon wanted a second dog. She loved Amy but had always had two dogs and wanted a second “because the house felt empty”. One day while working a farmer’s market in Chestertown, MD, my wife had a rescue dog come and sit with her from the local SPCA booth. My 4 year old daughter fell in love with him. According to my wife, the dog was sedate, calm and gentle as kids climbed all over him. I got a phone call from my little girl – “Daddy, can we pleeeaaaaasssse take him home? I love him so much!”. Not having a heart of stone, I agreed - much as I did not want to.

Stupid just does not convey the level of vacuous existent in this dog. I tell people he only has two brain cells and, most of the time, one of them gets stuck behind his eyeball. Every now and again, he jars it loose by running head first into a wall. He is about the size of a full grown lab but without an ounce of fat – just muscle, skin and bone. He has two speeds: "crazy hyper bouncy dog" and "off". He can go from one to the other in a split second. Generally, this is not a problem. Sometimes, however, I foolishly believe he is in calm mode and I let him curl up in my lap (more on that in a moment). His eyes will be closed, he will be tightly curled up and for all intents and purposes, be dead to the world. Then, somewhere down the block a dog will bark, someone somewhere will knock on a door or a ball will bounce and instantaneously the 70lb dog will launch himself off my lap, travel 4-5 feet in the air and sprint full speed to the front door barking the entire way. Ten minutes later, he shows back up “Duh, it was nothing. Can I come back up??”. In a painful soprano voice, I tell him to go away and he is confused by this.

He has absolutely no sense of personal space and firmly believes he is a lap dog. He is constantly trying to get right next to you and gets a deeply pained look if you if you shoo him away. It’s as if he doesn’t believe you love him if you don’t let him sit his ass on your chest and put his face right next to yours. On New Year’s Eve this past year, he circled the table by crawling into each person’s lap without once touching the floor.

He is also the most athletic dog I have ever had. He has an amazing vertical leap. His broad jump is impressive as well - once he gets running, he can jump from one side of my recliner, clear it without touching me and land on the couch six feet away with ease. Fast does not begin to describe him – he has a beautiful stride at top speed. On top of that, he and Amy play vicious games of wrestling and chase which, to the uninitiated, look like something from Vick’s backyard. Often time she gives a little chase and he runs a full speed lap around the house just ‘cause.

All in all, he is a good dog. He too, like the Abby before him, is growing on me. My daughter adores him while my son tolerates him. To my wife he is Captain Springy Paws b/c of his energy. To me, he is the crazy that every house needs now and again. I guess we’ll keep him for a bit longer.

There you have it. My dogs. As I said at one point, they are all a part of me and I carry them forward with me each and every day. Each taught (and continue to teach) me something of the joy of life and the cost of caring. I can honestly say that I am better man because of them.

Otis, Trajan, Abby, Bronwyn - You are missed and loved still.

Amy, Angus, we hope you stay with us a long time and that we can return to you the unconditional love you give us each and every day.

Thanks all for reading.

I'm bummed. My neighbor is moving out and as a result I'm loosing my surrogate English lab. Bad times.

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/255607_10101753906499168_1173020531_n.jpg

This is Sherman, he's a Cocker Spaniel my wife and I adopted five years ago.

I'm bummed. My neighbor is moving out and as a result I'm loosing my surrogate English lab. Bad times.

Clearly, you just need to get one of your own.

Anybody into vigilante justice? Wacos not that far away from me,these people need to die,preferably the same way they treated dogs.They were making snuff films using dogs,sickening,I couldnt read the whole article
Open Season: Do Laws Against Animal Crushing Videos Violate Free Speech? - Page 1 - News - Houston - Houston Press (http://www.houstonpress.com/2013-05-16/news/ashley-nicole-richards/)

If this isnt appropriate place to post,feel free to delete.I just saw this today and then saw this thread

So my mutt dog of nearly 11 years seems to be doing bad. Going to the vet today at 2:30. He has not being eating well; vomiting; generally just out of it.

To be very honest I am not a fan of his but he brings a lot of love/happiness to my wife and if he passes she is going to be very upset.

So my mutt dog of nearly 11 years seems to be doing bad. Going to the vet today at 2:30. He has not being eating well; vomiting; generally just out of it.

To be very honest I am not a fan of his but he brings a lot of love/happiness to my wife and if he passes she is going to be very upset.

Hope everything goes well.