Buttercup....
(Deep Breath)
Our family pet was put to rest today. She was 13.5 years old, we were lucky to have her from her 8th week of life til now. I want to say I was prepared for this, and I really thought I was. But I wasn’t. I wasn’t prepared to see my teenaged sons upset over her passing, I wasn’t prepared for my wife’s panicked conversation with me the day prior that something is wrong with Buttercup. I didn’t know that when I went to check on her yesterday, her standing up to greet me would be the last time. I didn’t know the walk to my neighbors house to pickup some mail would be the last time we would get to go for a walk.
Im sorry that your last car ride was to the place you despised the most.
Buttercup came to us from a farm in Wentzville Missouri, I met one of my family members in a parking lot at a Walmart (who was also picking up a dog), where I received Buttercup, not realizing the roller coaster, the friend, the protector, that I was picking up. Buttercup was our family’s first for real pet, while we enjoyed dogs, I know that I just didn’t understand the depths of a human dog relationship. It’s much deeper than I understood.
Buttercup immediately thought she was one of the boys, chasing them home after Denise let her off the leash was an immediate favorite. During this time of our life, she was an outdoor dog, mainly because we just didn’t know better. There were a lot of painful moments as people would harass her in the backyard, and I want to believe that this turned her into a fierce protector of us (well as fierce as a lab can be) .
During the second half of her life, she became an indoor dog, running around the house barking at the mail man, and just traveling the neighborhood to drink out of the neighbors fountain.
i could share many stories of her silliness. and probably type pages upon pages over her greediness for food and her love for people .
She was the right dog for our season. She gave me confidence that my family would be safe when I was away. She truly was man’s best friend.
