Honey, our golden retriever

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Ice Cream Jonsey
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Honey, our golden retriever

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

We have to say goodbye later today, this afternoon.

I want this to be a little different because she did get plenty of time with us. She has jaw cancer and a tumor on her jaw causing her a lot of pain. She has a heart murmur so they can't put her under to do any surgery. She is 14, she has a number of benign lumps and this last week she's had a little trouble getting up the stairs.

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I am insanely grateful for our time together. She is sleeping right next to me while I am working, as she has done so since March of 2020.
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nessman
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Re: Honey, our golden retriever

Post by nessman »

:-(
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Ice Cream Jonsey
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Re: Honey, our golden retriever

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

She's gone and I'm drunk
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Casual Observer
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Re: Honey, our golden retriever

Post by Casual Observer »

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Mon Nov 28, 2022 8:23 pm She's gone and I'm drunk
At least you stayed home. The night we had our 20 old siamese cat Cleopatra put down I got a DUI.

Also, did you try one of those "nice setting" places? Whats your feeling on creamation? We popped for the single creamation option, $500 for the whole shebang. She died in my arms on a couch surrounded by plants. I still cried.

Then we went out in San Francisco and had the worst luck imaginable, getting pulled over 3 blocks from home after successfully crossing the bay bridge and driving 40 more miles. Fuckhead cops. Probation is up in about 33 days from now, yay.

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Re: Honey, our golden retriever

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

Casual Observer wrote: Mon Nov 28, 2022 10:21 pm Also, did you try one of those "nice setting" places? Whats your feeling on creamation? We popped for the single creamation option, $500 for the whole shebang. She died in my arms on a couch surrounded by plants. I still cried.
Yes, we had used a service last month for Annie where a person comes to the house. Really nice folks. They give one drug to let the doggie take a nice nap, and then about 10-15 minutes later, they give the liquid which is the euthanasia one. It is a zillion times better than what we have done before, which is to take a cat or dog to a vet place where there are 10 screaming other animals in the lobby and the vet is rushed because (no fault of theirs) they have 4 more of those to do that day.

We elected to have her cremated. They have options for a group cremation, one where they put some space on the, er, rack and then one where it's just them. I think we did the middle one. It ... it doesn't matter in the scheme of things, right? Technology won't exist to resurrect our dogs from ashes, this isn't the game Wizardry. But the thought of our muffin being thrown on a pile with other deceased pets. I mean, it's not depressing, but it is. Who cares, it's just a body... but what are ya gonna do. The bill for someone to come out here and be nice to Honey and give her those two fluids and then do the middle cremation (where there is "space") was $598. It's worth it, to me.
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Tdarcos
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Re: Honey, our golden retriever

Post by Tdarcos »

By complete coincidence I have the following which fits very well. Not perfect, but close (you'll understand what I mean when you hear the song). I think it fits here, but it is so sappy and (I had to look this word up) lachrymose that I can't listen to it.

Again, this board does not permit me to either inline or media tag YouTube links
https://youtu.be/UKAeeGnAYBo

HONEY
by Bobby Goldsboro
...Then the first snow came
And she ... came runnin' in all excited
Slipped and almost hurt herself
And I laughed till I cried
She was always young at heart
Kinda dumb and kinda smart and I loved her so
...
And honey, I miss you
And I'm bein' good
And I'd love to be with you
If only I could
...
And it was in the early Spring
When flowers bloom and robins sing
She went away
And honey, I miss you
And I'm bein' good
And I'd love to be with you
If only I could
One day while I was not at home
While she was there and all alone
The angels came
Now all I have is memories of Honey
And I wake up nights and call her name
Now my life's an empty stage
Where Honey lived and Honey played
And love grew up
And a small cloud passes overhead
And cries down on the flower bed
That Honey loved
...
Alan Francis wrote a book containing everything men understand about women. It consisted of 100 blank pages.

Casual Observer
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Re: Honey, our golden retriever

Post by Casual Observer »

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Tue Nov 29, 2022 9:50 am
Casual Observer wrote: Mon Nov 28, 2022 10:21 pm Also, did you try one of those "nice setting" places? Whats your feeling on creamation? We popped for the single creamation option, $500 for the whole shebang. She died in my arms on a couch surrounded by plants. I still cried.
Yes, we had used a service last month for Annie where a person comes to the house. Really nice folks. They give one drug to let the doggie take a nice nap, and then about 10-15 minutes later, they give the liquid which is the euthanasia one. It is a zillion times better than what we have done before, which is to take a cat or dog to a vet place where there are 10 screaming other animals in the lobby and the vet is rushed because (no fault of theirs) they have 4 more of those to do that day.

We elected to have her cremated. They have options for a group cremation, one where they put some space on the, er, rack and then one where it's just them. I think we did the middle one. It ... it doesn't matter in the scheme of things, right? Technology won't exist to resurrect our dogs from ashes, this isn't the game Wizardry. But the thought of our muffin being thrown on a pile with other deceased pets. I mean, it's not depressing, but it is. Who cares, it's just a body... but what are ya gonna do. The bill for someone to come out here and be nice to Honey and give her those two fluids and then do the middle cremation (where there is "space") was $598. It's worth it, to me.
Yeah, that's the best way. We got a really nice little wood box with her ashes and the lady even made a cute picture framed ink print of her paws. They're on my tv center now.

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Re: Honey, our golden retriever

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

She had a voracious appetite. She was breeding more goldens at like a year old, so I just assumed she needed more calories than she could ever possibly get, but who knows. She was always in the mood for a burger. Or carrots. Or strawberries, apples, turkey, fries, the cardboard inside toilet paper rolls, those bones that get all wet with slobber. Anything.

When the pandemic shut everything down and I started working from home every day she had to be by my side. If I were downstairs working, she had to be in the room under the office table. If I went upstairs for more than 20 minutes she'd wake up and follow me upstairs. Up until the last couple weeks when she was just so tired and on pain meds, I think she was physically next to me while I was in this house at all times.

Every night, when I would come up from down here to go up two flights of stairs and into bed, she would get doggie treats. "If you're good at something, never do it for free" and she was good at going up the stairs and getting her treats, if she didn't get them she would bark to go back downstairs and start the process all over again. She snored during the day and her snoring came across over Zoom for work. Which I am sure was annoying to people on the other end of the call, but I think it's important to remember who the fuck we're working for, it sure isn't really for some faceless corporation, it's for our families.

There are multiple stories where she ate purses of people who visited because there were apples and food inside those purses, and my wife's friends had left them where Honey could get them. I have purchased replacement purses. There are multiple stories where she had to stay overnight at an emergency room because she ate rocks or a diaper or whatever else. I had a vet once say to me that "this is the first dog who has ever not responded to this vomit fluid!!!" and I'm like yes, that's my girl, my little Honeygirl, she's keeping what she ate down.

We lost our other golden in February of 2020, those two were inseparable and it made me sad that she lost her older brother but she had me. Even though my wife bought her originally from the rescue before she was my wife and before we lived together, Honey eventually decided to fixate on me. She just wanted to be close at all times. That worked for me. Honey was one of those dogs that would never react to a baby grabbing her fur or pulling her tail or whatever and while we tried to stop my nephew from doing that she had endless patience. My nephew said her name for the first time on Sunday. He won't remember her but we have pictures, oh lord do we have pictures.

She got a squirrel once. She was not a vicious dog, but when we lived downtown, there was a squirrel or two that got reeeeeeeeeeeal cocky dancing and taunting on our fence. Well, one day a squirrel got too full of itself and slipped and fell down and CHOMP, Honey proceeded to carry it around until I came home from work, because my wife was too grossed out to intervene. Don't taunt dogs is the lesson here, squirrels.

She was goofy and tennis-ball obsessed. Her vision got worse, her hearing got worse, she would try to catch tennis balls in her old age with less effectiveness. But I have never seen a more alert being than when she was in her younger years and a tennis ball was around. When Melissa first had her she lived in a townhouse, on the third floor. She would walk Honey for hours and Honey wouldn't go number one. As soon as they went back inside, she'd pee on the carpet. Within a couple weeks we figured out that if she was thrown a tennis ball outside, she would catch it and immediately go #1. It was like flipping a light switch. She got much easier to live with at that point.

Because she was so obsessed with food and getting into cat litter, we completely changed how we lived our lives. I would try to set some cat treats down for the cats, but I would do so quietly because I didn't want her to hear and come over and try to eat those cat treats. I found myself doing that tonight. We couldn't keep food anywhere near a counter, everything had to be up up up. We have gates to keep her away from the litter boxes that don't matter anymore. We had a gate upstairs so we could all get some sleep, to stop her from going downstairs and woofing for more doggie treats. She was a tiny little golden retriever and I loved her so much. So much.

Additionally, what stings is that a part of my life is coming to a close. Melissa took a picture when we moved into the house downtown, it's of me and 7 animals. Gritty, Honey, Reggie, Frobozz, Willow, Boggit and Noelani. All of them have passed away except for Reggie. Honey's death is really the first time I have had to come to grips with a part of my life closing. I guess it will fully close when Reggie passes, but you know what I mean. It's the first time I've thought about chapters in my life and look, I try to "stay" mentally young. I try to make jokes and not complain all the time (I know I fail at that a lot) and not be mentally old and a sourpuss. Melissa and I were two people that met over a dating site that I don't even know exists anymore. She had two cats, I had three and she went and got two goldens. We went everywhere with those dogs and got married. I think we love and respect each other. I hope this is all okay. I think back to the picture of our happy little (sp) family and I smile. I'm sad, but I smile. Honey's big silly goofy face meant that "time" was still the present. But it's fading.

Honey was a good dog, she was the best dog and so full of life and love. I'm going to miss her sloppy tongue giving me kisses as we worked through a bag of baby carrots together. It's so lonely here during the day now. This hungry project dog nobody wanted changed my life to make me a better, happier person. Oh Honey you cannot leave, what are we going to do now. I miss you so much. I love you, Honeygirl.

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Ice Cream Jonsey
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Re: Honey, our golden retriever

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

There were no dogs in the house after Monday this week.

The amount of things you hear if you WFH and attribute to a dog... only to realize, holy christ know, the beams of my house must be falling in on itself is insane. There is a lot more noise around here than I previously thought. I expect the roofs to fall on me at any time (note for Tdarcos - we have a Colorado Three Roof house, which is a particular style of house with extra rooves, which I assume you have seen in your time).
the dark and gritty...Ice Cream Jonsey!

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