I've debated whether I should make this post. But, I feel I owe it to Spud to acknowledge him today. I'm sorry if I'm giving my family one more chapter to deal with in what has been a really long and hard day for everyone. Spud found the end of his life today and is finally free from the pain and suffering he's been in for the past few years.
Spud has been our family's pet since the spring of 1995 when my mom, her friend Lolly, and Melissa and I found him running up 3300 South in front of the State Farm building where we all worked. We thought he was going to get hit by a car for sure, so we brought him inside the office. He was tired and thirsty and we gave him some water. We started to try to find his owners. He had a collar but no tags. We put up posters and left information about him at the shelters. No one came forward. He had either been lost a long time or had been abandoned. He was probably 1 or 2 years old at the time - still a puppy. He was a very nice dog, very sweet and obedient, so we decided to keep him after a few days.
Since then, he has been a member of our family. He came along at a hard time in my life. I had just gone through selling my two horses and I was having a really hard time getting over it. He hung out with me a lot in my college years. I use to take him for rides in my truck - in the cab, not the back! He was a great retriever and loved to fetch tennis balls and frisbees. Living across the street from the Cottonwood Country Club, we had an endless supply of wrongly hit tennis balls that found their way into our yard from the tennis courts there. He was a funny little dog who didn't chase cats and didn't lift his leg on anything either.
I thought of him as my dog then, although he was much loved by everyone in the family. When I got married and moved out of my parents' house, I couldn't take him with me because we were living in a tiny downtown apartment. No life for a big energetic dog there. David and I did take him on outings quite a bit though. One of our favorites with him was a kayaking trip to Rush Lake.
A year and a half after getting married, we bought our first house and couldn't wait to bring Spud there to live with us. I brought him home and he stayed a couple of days. I had no idea how attached to him my dad had become. My little sister, Melissa, was living in Richmond, VA at the time and called me on the phone after Spud had been at our house for the week-end. She said "Shell, you have to take the dog back. Dad needs him and he won't tell you." So, David and I decided to give him back to his buddy Lyle and get our own dog. This is when we rescued Velvet from the shelter.
So, my dad and Spud have been best buddies ever since. His favorite activity for many years has been sitting on the back porch with my dad when he gets home from work. Spud has always liked the "guys" in his life. I think he liked my dad and David the best although my mom has done the most to take care of him. She has seen him through lots of things including having a huge tumor removed from his belly and his developed habit of chewing his legs in his later years. She has spent many many hours bandaging him and keeping him alive for "one more week."
He's really had a great life, and has lived much longer than anyone could have expected given his health problems in the last few years. We are just glad that he came to be part of our family and that he was around for as long as he was. I'm only sorry that I couldn't be with my family in Salt Lake today, but I did get a chance to say good-bye to him last month. We hope he's catching frisbees in the sky now...
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