5 years ago:
Goodbye to our beautiful dog friend.
MORE: Pictures and video at the "Abby" tag at Meade's Pupparazzo blog.
May 1, 2018
Goodbye to Abby.
4 years ago:
5 years ago:
Goodbye to our beautiful dog friend.
MORE: Pictures and video at the "Abby" tag at Meade's Pupparazzo blog.
5 years ago:
Goodbye to our beautiful dog friend.
MORE: Pictures and video at the "Abby" tag at Meade's Pupparazzo blog.
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83 comments:
It was a health problem, not an accident.
Cancer? We lost our Anatolian Sheepdog, Dorjie, at age 12.
I’m sorry for your loss. I lost mine 1-1/2 years ago.
That's the downside of owning and loving pets. You watch the whole cycle of their lives including the end.
Wow. Sorry for your loss. Was she only around 5 then?
Large breed dogs are awesome, but they have a habit of breaking hearts due to their shorter lifespans.
Such a beautiful dog.
Sorry for your loss.
So sad. How much those wonderful friends enrich our lives.
Says something about a dog that even people who aren’t it’s owners mourn it’s passing.
So sorry. Such a sweet girl.
Toy
Oh I am so sorry. She was beautiful. How old? St Bernard and other larger breeds tend to not live long.
There are lucky individual exceptions, but large dogs don't live long most of the time. My first Doberman lived 13 1/2 years, which is a long time.
On the other hand, if you're old and want a puppy that has only 50/50 odds of outliving you, a large breed is a good choice.
Vicki Hearne on the dead dog problem
https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Hearne_OyezABeaumont.pdf
that you won't regret reading.
So sorry...and yes, if you are blessed with a long life you witness the life cycle of many a good dog.
Goodbye girl. You were a beauty.
Oh, I am so sorry. There is nothing like the love of a good dog.
I now have my fourth basset hound and she is a rescue.
We don't know how old she is but she is about 8 to 10. Bassets also don't live long as they are very inbred.
She is a joy and the nicest of all that went before.
When I lost my last basset, two years ago, a friend told me that when we die we will meet all the dogs that ever loved us.
That will be a lot of dogs in my case.
Sorry for your loss.
Abby had a wonderful life at Meadhouse.
Oh my, from what you have written of her she seemed a sweet lady. I'm sorry for you and Meade losing a furry friend.
Even a borrowed dog finds a place in your heart.
When the last dog I had got too sick, the vet who said he'd come by after work to administer the shot. I went out in the yard, found a suitable spot and started digging a hole. Of course, the dog came out and sat next to me. The irony. Then I hit a PVC irrigation pipe and water shot up. I had to shut the main and start another hole. So he got the last laugh. I wore his license around my neck for six months. Losing your pal is tough.
Abby, like Zeus, was a dog belonging to one of our neighbors.
Do you love your neighborhood dogs?
Sorry for your loss. Losing pets is traumatic as a kid, but even worse as an adult. I do hope there is a doggy heaven and that Abby is there.
I'm sorry that happened.
What a great and agreeable looking dog.
Crossing over the beautiful River to Doggy Heaven.
"Do you love your neighborhood dogs?"
No. Not the terrier behind us who barks constantly at us. And certainly not the large hound of indeterminate species who attacked us twice in the street as we were walking our very calm shepherd/terrier mix.
Then there's the little dog our neighbors let out into the dentist's parking lot without a leash that the kids have to chase down before they get hit by a car.
I feel sorry for most dogs. They want to work. They want to have companions around. They want to roam and sniff. And we keep them housed and ignored (ours was a rescue who endured exactly that).
But I'm a cat person myself. We lost Ivan the Terrible two months ago. He had been a part of my daily life for years, more so since I work from home. Now there's an Ivan-sized hole in our lives.
Do you love your neighborhood dogs?
In my neighborhood the dogs remain confined in yards and houses for the most part. I do provide a refuge for the neighborhood's cats however. (being one of the few yards without dogs in them)
God's cruel joke on us. Give us pets to love. Give them shorter lives. Break our hearts when they die. Get new pet...rinse and repeat.
God's great gift to us. Give us pets to love and who love us back.
Now I get it. The Abb[e]y Road cover was not about Paul being dead...
Having a pet dog or cat is volunteering to have your heart broken every few years...
Dogs and Chinese restaurants. I sense a theme.
" I went out in the yard, found a suitable spot and started digging a hole."
In our case, we would need a jackhammer as Tucson foothill soil is gravel.
I have had the last couple of dogs cremated and I still have the ashes of my golden retriever to go with me when my time comes.
A friend's wife was buried with her two siamese cats. They had preceded her and she died suddenly in her sleep at 46.
"Do you love your neighborhood dogs?"
We basically stole our next door neighbors dog. He would come to the back deck every morning, spend the day at our house with our dog and go home at night. Sometimes he'd sleep over. He collapsed and died at our house. It was heartbreaking.
I'm sorry for your loss. BTW, Our neighborhood dogs are friendly, on a leash and well-behaved. It's not that hard,humans
Do you love your neighborhood dogs?
A few weeks ago we had to put our 11 year old Golden Retriever down. Cancer - thought she was getting mellow because of old age, but we were wrong.
In about an hour I am due to go to our neighbor's house to take their golden doodle for a walk while her owners are away at work - usually do that once or twice a week depending on how the dog mom's travel route is set up for the day. Both of us relish that time together.
I'll bet you were great neighbor friends to Abby. I think you probably took good care of Abby and snuck in a few extra treats. I'll bet she loved coming to visit with you. She was lucky. Our dog inserts herself into everyones home here in our neighborhood. I'm not sure they all know what they're getting into. She's a smallish (20 lbs) dog with a large sense of adventure, and gets very busy in other peoples homes. And does she ever love people. Any open garage door, or a car pulling up a driveway means it's time to socialize. I think she'd love to have you and Meade as neighbors.
By the way, I salute the role that you play in the lives of your neighbor dogs. We were dog-free for about 20 years - wound up with our last dog because our daughter wanted one. In that 20 years a lot of dogs stayed with us while their owners traveled. We are subtly putting out the word that we are "back in business" (not that we ever charged or took money for doing that).
I hope to retire to the country where I can have more dogs. Right now we have two plus two 17 year old cats. Losing a pet is like losing a friend and I don't look forward to that day.
There was a gap in the fence between us and our neighbor. We got a call one night from Dave asking if we were missing a dog. Zoe would often slip through the fence and we thought she was probably in the back yard. No - her friend Nala the Weimaraner had slipped her in the house through the doggie door. Dave our neighbor came home to find them chilling in the kitchen. Busted!
Well, there's Selena. She's quiet and sweet. Then we lost our pup pal, Strolchi to cancer and complications. So sad. then there's Momo who seldom barks, patient with the kids. And Magic. And Gypsy who incessantly barks and scares from her yard. And then Flo (male) who visits our gate sometimes by accident. And Lauser who roams unaffected but steer clear, he can get aggressive. And our lil pup whom we cherish. Not sure what Strolchi owners will do. But it breaks our heart everytime we walk past. May Abby enjoy her sweet heaven and we will always remember her.
Both my Bassets died this year within a few months of each other. One was 14 and the other was 14.
I'm sitting here tearing up for everyone's dogs...
We lost our own Abby a couple of years back, She was just your garden variety old yellow dog. She was probably a cross between a Collie and a German Shepherd, but had generous helpings of other breeds. She was a rescue dog from the Philadelphia pound where our daughter "adopted" her. Six months later our daughter was transferred to England--and Abby struck lucky by moving out to the warm California sunshine. Fourteen years later I got to take that last trip to the vet with her. Like all of our dogs who went before she lived to a ripe old age. And all of those trips broke my heart.
Out here in California most people have fenced yards, and dogs don't get to wander the neighborhood. But in the Midwest fences aren't so common and folks get to enjoy (or be harassed by) their neighbors dogs. A good dog is a friend to all--and they are missed when they are gone.
That's a shame. Big dogs often have a shorter life than small yapping ones.
Condolences.
Heartbreaking. Sorry.
Our neighborhood includes deer, coyotes, and feral dogs. Looking forward to the first coydog.
It's a special kind of hurt to lose a pet, especially one like Abby, who no doubt was a huge presence (literally & emotionally) in your & her owners' lives.
They're not human beings & you sort of feel weird about how much the loss hurts. But, boy, does it hurt!
When we lost our last cat May of 2017, I lasted two weeks with a silent house before I broke. Off to the animal shelter, and we grabbed two Bengal kittens & a 12 & a half year old Himalayan that the shelter begged us to take. The Himalayan is starting to get kidney problems, so how long he will be with us is another story. We knew the job was dangerous when we took it, but we & the kittens adore him.
I'm sorry for your loss.
Do you love your neighborhood dogs? Yes and yours as well.
I am so sorry. It is a deep deep hurt to lose your pet, or a pet you love.
I lost my old man sheltie a year ago, and have since gotten two puppies. But for a whole year, I couldn't bring myself to clean our old man's nose prints off the mirror he used to run into.
My ex had a sheltie.. Kept him in a kennel all day while he was at work, and never fed him meat. Just IAMS. Because, it's better that way.
I still tear up thinking how miserable that poor anxious dog must have been.
Sorry for your loss, Ann.
God speed Abby.
We had two Saints when growing up. Yeah. They drool a lot and can go through a 50-pound bag of food in a week.
But they were great fun. Tackle football, running, wrestling ... perfect for a kid to play with 'someone' his own size.
Sad to lose a pet. Be well.
My condolences.
I have lost several Golden Retrievers. We were there when the dogs were put to sleep.
They were painful experiences that became bittersweet as we accepted the inevitability of death.
We were tremendously blessed by their love and companionship.
I hope it is the same for Althouse and Meade.
Ann,
So sorry to hear of the loss of your four-legged family member. They matter so much!
What a magnificent mountain of a dog. It always touched my heart that you and Meade had your 4 legged neighborhood friends and shared activities with them. To tweak a quote sometimes attributed to Ronald Reagan..."I've often said there's nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a dog (horse)." Abby must have been sheer heaven to hug. My sincerest condolences to your household and your neighbor's.
That's sad. Reminds me of my Victor, a Bernese who's already six.
Sounds like your neighbor's dog left pawprints on your heart. Good for you.
One good thing about getting old:
Your pet may bury you, and not the other way round.
I miss Twiggy (a whippet) from down the street. Sad to hear about Abby.
“If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and man.” -- Mark Twain
Rest in peace, Abby.
Can you love your neighbor's dog? Is this a play on Matthew 22? In any case, I have loved some of my neighbors, so why not their dogs?
Condolences.
-sw
What a great looking pooch! Sorry, Ann and Meade.
- Krumhorn
So sorry about beautiful Abby. We love every dog in the neighborhood. All the neighbors loved ours too and when we lost our Raven it was a very sad, tearful neighborhood. 3 years later we still have people coming up to us as we walk, dogless, and hug us because they remembered her and miss her. Dogs just are the best ever.
Abby, RIP.
I am so sorry, for your loss and especially for Abby's family's loss. This is my last comment for the day.
I lifted this from somebody wiser than me: we give dogs the time we can spare, the food we can spare, and the space we can spare. In return, they give us their unconditional love. It is the greatest bargain man has ever made.
In addition to Abby, wasn't there an Addie, or something like that?
A doodle of sorts. Looked like one I gots, but different color. My so-called Lavender is rare. Unlike (I assumed) some Clumbers we've heard of.
Anywho, the I've always written that the gardener would make an amazing dog walker, for hire.
W/ some more training he could also train.
IMHO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=dA7xyjLVw4A
Condolences.
Don't know what breed or mix she was but I always had a soft spot for St. Bernards.
I've seen it go both ways. Our Wheaton used to stop at Ms Hazel's house on our daily walks. She was elderly, but sharp and sat out on her front lawn on most evenings. We'd stop and chat, and the dog would sit next to her and put his paw on her knees and such. She eventually passed, but for several months, he kept going to her stoop and sitting, waiting for her to come out. Most may be on the dumb side, but I'm sure they have souls.
Ann Althouse said...
Abby, like Zeus, was a dog belonging to one of our neighbors.
Do you love your neighborhood dogs?
5/1/18, 10:36 AM
It's funny, you put that out there and nobody notices. Almost everyone here, including many of our resident shits, feels worse about the dog than you do. For you, she was an appliance, a neighbor's lawnmower that you borrowed, and can't borrow anymore.
I mean, that's your whole point in not owning a pet yourself, right, so you can not GAF?
Or is it that you need not be troubled to SHOW that you GAF, as presumably you would feel obliged to do if the animal were your property?
Me, I don't feel sorry for you, I feel bad for the poor puppy, and for his actual family. Which is emphatically, explicitly not you.
That sucks. The only time I cried in the last 30 years or so was when we had a vet kill our Pyrenees+Chow mix at 9-10 years because of a funky cancer that caused internal bleeding.
On that happy note, humans could take some behavioral lessons from dogs, except for the fighting at the drop of a hat and peeing on everything and licking your butthole and sniffing other buttholes and killing things and eating pieces of rotting dead animals. Did I mention chasing cars and yelling "go away I'll kill you!" at well-meaning strangers? That's the neighbors' dogs, not ours.
My theory is that the optimal size for dogs is between 20 to 80 pounds, even though smaller dogs might live longer but they're weird, because it's pretty much the size range of wild dogs. Although (domestic) dogs have more varied phenotypes in some ways, cats have a larger function size range ~ 10 to 500+ pounds.
Love me, love my dogma.
Anyone who likes dogs should prolly read "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle". Besides the plot, the interesting concept was breeding dogs which had a "certain something" regardless of their official breed or mix.
"The Story of Edgar Sawtelle"
Thanks, Ferdy!
On that happy note, humans could take some behavioral lessons from dogs, except for the fighting at the drop of a hat and peeing on everything and licking your butthole and sniffing other buttholes and killing things and eating pieces of rotting dead animals. Did I mention chasing cars and yelling "go away I'll kill you!" at well-meaning strangers?
But humans already know all that. They need to learn the good dog stuff. Like sticking their tongues up your nose and licking your brain. Chihuahua or pittie, they all get deep. How do they DO that?
Bad Lieutenant has the emotional range of a tsp. She obviously GAF. She just isn’t going to wail like a little girl in front of the likes of you.
- Krumhorn
Sorry-did you say, I have the emotional range of a teaspoon? Lemme tell you, buddy: there is no spoon.
Sure she cares. Now she has to find somebody else in this town full of lefty Althouse-haters who will lend her another lawnmower. Do you really ever get a sense of pure, sincere, elevated emotion from Althouse? Good for you, you must be such a swell guy.
You might enjoy L.B. Johnson's The Book of Barkley, her memoir of her Labrador Retriever, Barkley. Johnson, who was once an airline pilot and now works as a medical examiner, is a blogger herself, and The Book of Barkley, supported initially by her blog readers, became a surprise best-seller.
RIP Abby...
It came to me that every time I lose a dog they take a piece of my heart with them, and every new dog who comes into my life gifts me with a piece of their heart. If I live long enough all the components of my heart will be dog, and I will become as generous and loving as they are...... Anonymous
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