I found him on Petfinder.com and fell in love with him instantly. His original name was Smiley, he was 5 months old, and he was at a foster family for the Humane Society. He had been adopted when he was very young but his first owners did not want to deal with him and so they left him by himself in a crate at all times. I remember the first time I went to meet him and he met me at the gate. He was so fluffy and friendly. I knew I could not leave without him. So began our days of owning a puppy. In the first couple of weeks Eric and I were stressed and unsure about him. He was a puppy with a lot of bad habits. After a while though he got used to us and we found out what a playful, smart, and happy dog he was. He was being crate trained by his foster mom so we continued it and he actually liked his crate. We left it out and he would always climb in it and sleep in it. It was his safe place. He could even open the door if the door was unlocked.
I remember when I finally took a job as a hospital clerk after deciding to go to nursing school and having to leave him alone for the first time. We gated him in our kitchen just in case he had any accidents. We left him with plenty of toys and water. When we came home we found him outside of the kitchen and his dog bed was torn to shreds. We could not figure out how he did it. We decided to watch him so we placed him back in the gated kitchen and watch him climb the gate to the top and jump over. The next day we used a gate on top of some boxes and bookcases. He still climbed those. He was our Houdini. We found out that he had extreme separation anxiety and he would freak out when ever he was alone. Once we got our second dog Bella he was fine.
When I was 8 months pregnant with our son Riley, we noticed Bob was not seeing things very well. He usually caught his treats in the air, but we saw that he was not seeing them at all. We rushed him to the vet only to find that he had suddenly gone blind. We even took him to a pet opthamalogist only to find it was irreversible due to an autoimmune disorder that sometimes occurs in dogs. Bob was depressed for many months. Of course he was. His favorite things to do was to look out the window all day and to ride in the car to watch everything go by. Soon, he figured out how to maneuver our house and he was a happy dog again. He just needed extra help. Of course at that time we also brought in a new baby and being newly blind he was very confused. For a while we thought we may have to give him away since he would growl everytime the baby cried and he would sit by him staring at him in an unfriendly way. Once he got used to the new sounds and blindness, he was ok. He never, ever tried to hurt either of our kids even though Riley has pulled on his tail a few times or accidentally tripped over him. He was a good dog.
Everywhere we took Bob, he was well known. All the groomers, vets, and kennels he has ever been in, he was well known. He was the super mutt that had the face of a puppy. Just a week ago when I was at the vet with Bob in my lap, a woman in the waiting room said "What a cute puppy". I turned to her and said, "Acutally, he is 12 years old". She loved him even more. We were always stopped on the street when we took him for walks and people would always ask us what kind of dog he was. We never knew his breed so we always said mutt or just Bob.
After we had the kids the dogs got less time. I feel bad about that now but it is how things go. When you have kids your dog babies come second. We still loved them always.
A few weeks ago, Bob stopped eating. Lily was only 3 months old and Bob has always been picky about his food so we thought nothing of it. He would eat one bite and then nothing. Then a few days later he started vomiting. We figured he just had a stomach issue so we took him to the vet and found out he had severe kidney failure. They still do not know why. The vet told Eric that if he was human he would be rushed to the hospital for dialysis and a kidney transplant. That is how bad he was. We tried to treat him with IV fluids. They actually seemed to help him and he perked up. We also put him on Pepcid and he was eating again and acting like himself. Of course last week, things changed. Bob stopped eating completely last Monday. He got weaker and weaker and could barely walk by Thursday. He was vomiting constantly. We had to carry him everywhere and he would whine whenever you picked him up. He knew he was too sick and that he was trying to let go when he stopped eating. Thursday night we cuddled and hugged him as much as possible since we knew what was next. We took him in Friday morning and the vet confirmed our thoughts that he was severly sick and he was just going to continue to starve to death. We did not want that for our dog so we made the decision to put him down. Eric and I were both there with him and we took the blanket he had slept on for the past few days home with us for Bella to have his scent. It was so hard to watch him go, yet it was good to know that he was no longer suffering...
It is times like this I am thankful that Riley does not understand. His Autism spared him from this depressing moment. One day he will ask us about that black, fluffy dog and we can share his story but for now he gets to go on without that heartache.
Goodbye sweet Bob. We miss you so much! You taught us how to be good parents for our children. You also showed us what unconditional love is...
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