{"id":196,"date":"2010-02-06T17:33:14","date_gmt":"2010-02-07T00:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/farmingforprofits.com\/?p=196"},"modified":"2010-10-20T03:58:23","modified_gmt":"2010-10-20T10:58:23","slug":"in-memory-of-hannah-nov-1997-feb-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=196","title":{"rendered":"In Memory of Hannah Nov 1997-Feb 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>There isn’t much that stops me in my tracks.\u00a0 I have too many things on my to-do list and too many mouths begging for food, attention, and more TV time.\u00a0 So, when a dog gets old, I just start feeding her in the house, let her sleep upstairs away from the kids and daily commotion, and go on with my chores.\u00a0 When she can’t manage the stairs, I move her bed in front of the wood stove and just pat her head as I pass by unloading groceries and mopping up muddy boot tracks.\u00a0 And when the morning comes that she can’t get up and I have to lift her back legs to help her outside, I call the vet and still go on with checking homework, hauling feed bags, and putting dinner in the crock pot.<\/p>\n

But the day that the vet comes is never a busy one.\u00a0 On that day there is time for the kids to gather for one long last hug.\u00a0 They will eat their breakfast sitting on the dog bed and treating her to bits of egg and bacon.\u00a0 When their tears are dry and they have been delivered to school, there are no more chores to be done.\u00a0 The dishes will wait in the sink and the chickens will wait in their coop.\u00a0 For now, the only thing to do is to lay by her side in front of the wood stove, stroking her fur, and reminding her that she is a good dog.<\/p>\n

I cannot remember everything she chewed or how many times she had the nerve to go to the bathroom in her crate at night.\u00a0 I just remember that she would rise early as a young dog and play with her dog toy against our bedroom wall.\u00a0 We woke each morning to the sound of it thumping and rolling and her nails clicking as she chased it around.\u00a0 I remember that we could meet any of our friends and their dogs and she was content to be the dog on the bottom rung of the social ladder.\u00a0 No growling or posturing for her, just tail wagging and a lowered head.\u00a0 I remember that all my babies were greeted with licks and a high tolerance for ear-pulling.\u00a0 And now that they are children, she can be walked by even the youngest of them because she never pulls on the leash.\u00a0 Now she is the only dog that will reliably drop the tennis ball, without a chase, for another throw.\u00a0 Now she snores so loudly at the foot of our bed that my husband and I wake and laugh (and sometimes, cuss) and toss a pillow at her to get her to roll over.\u00a0 How will we sleep without those snores?<\/p>\n

In the end it is not just their presence that dogs take with them.\u00a0 It is all that time we had together.\u00a0 The single years and the early days of marriage.\u00a0 When we were building a house and expecting a baby.\u00a0 When the children arrived and we started the farm.\u00a0 All those beginnings, all that time is gone and we can never have it back.\u00a0 When I weep into the soft fur on her head I am not just crying for her.\u00a0 I am crying for the parts of our lives that are over and behind us.\u00a0 How did we get to these final moments by the wood stove and the vet’s truck in the driveway?\u00a0 How does our life just go on without hers?<\/p>\n

She sighs and thumps her tail.\u00a0 She never worries over what is over.\u00a0 No dogs do.\u00a0 Today’s tummy rub by the warmth of the fire is just as good as yesterday’s scratch behind the ears.\u00a0 If dogs yearn for the years of youth and vigor it is only in their deepest dreams, when they whimper and bark and run in place while sprawled at the base of the couch.\u00a0 But they always wake contented, happy to see you and satisfied with their station in life. \u00a0 As if arthritic hips and fatty tumors are the prefect way to start another beautiful day.\u00a0 And that’s why our house has always been filled with barks and dog hair.\u00a0 Because dogs don’t have a to-do list.\u00a0 Because dogs fill their years with sloppy kisses, not regrets.\u00a0 Because dogs love you even when you yell for no reason or sleep late instead of getting their breakfast or forget they are outside when it starts to rain.\u00a0 They love you even when you call the vet, and believe you when you tell them the needle is OK, and don’t even mind when your tears tickle their ears.<\/p>\n

Goodbye, Hannah.\u00a0 Thank you for you time with us.\u00a0 We have no regrets, either, and we hope to see you on the other side.\u00a0 With good hips and no more tumors.\u00a0 Go in peace.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\u00a9<\/span> Stevie Taylor 2010. All Rights Reserved.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There isn’t much that stops me in my tracks.\u00a0 I have too many things on my to-do list and too many mouths begging for food, attention, and more TV time.\u00a0 So, when a dog gets old, I just start feeding her in the house, let her sleep upstairs away from the kids and daily commotion, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-sweet-spot","tag-dogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=196"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1554,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196\/revisions\/1554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}