My pal Sunny
A few years ago, we had to find new homes for our pets - our dog Lucy and our cat Kitty. With asthma and allergy problems in our family, it just didn't feel right to have the pets knowing that it was making living harder for the people part of our family. It was with great sadness that I found a new home for Kitty (thanks Eric and Nicole) and with great sadness for Marty/great relief for me that we found a new home for Lucy (thanks A LOT Brenda). At the time, Sophie was not yet born, and the pet relocation program took place at the same time that we moved into our new house. I think that at first Martin didn't really notice that the pets weren't there. Then, after awhile, he would talk about them but mostly in a "we used to have a dog, right?" kind of way. I think it was more of a memory based in photos and stories than actual memories of his own.
Its been three years since we became a pet-free home, and in that time Martin has developed a special relationship with my mom and dad's dogs - Maggie and Sunny. Whenever we're at my parents, he likes to go for walks with the dogs, helps to feed them, and loads them up with treats. He says that they're his dogs too, that they just don't live together, but they could if I would let him live at Grandma Jane's.
A few weeks ago when we were at mom and dad's, I told Martin that it would be our last visit with Sunny. She was pretty old, I explained, and her body wasn't doing that well anymore. We knew that since she was pretty old and in a lot of pain, that she wouldn't be able to live much longer. I wanted to prepare him for this, and to give him a chance to say goodbye to his old dog, knowing that Sunny wouldn't be there the next time we went for a visit.
It was terrible. My poor boy, he cried so hard. Pretty much the whole day. Since that day, he's talked about Sunny every day, asking how she was doing and wondering if Grandpa Pack was bringing her treats. Yesterday I took the kids to the park and while we were there, I told Martin that Sunny had died earlier that day. He cried, struggling to put everything together in his mind. Trying to imagine what a visit would be like without Sunny there. He asked if I was sure, and I told him that Sunny had gone to the farm with Grandpa Pack and Uncle Steve and that she died while she was there, lucky because she was at one of her favorite places. I explained that Sunny would be buried at the farm, and that we could go visit that spot whenever we were at the farm. I wasn't sure if he understood the whole thing or if I had just made it more confusing, hoping that he wouldn't think that we'd actually see Sunny on those visits.
Later that day, I heard Martin talking about Sunny and explaining that she was real old and that she died that day. That we wouldn't be able to play with her anymore, but she was at the farm forever. We could visit her spot any time, but she would actually be in dog heaven. Our job now, he said, was to make sure that Maggie wasn't lonely.
Martin and his pal Sunny, October 2007
Its been three years since we became a pet-free home, and in that time Martin has developed a special relationship with my mom and dad's dogs - Maggie and Sunny. Whenever we're at my parents, he likes to go for walks with the dogs, helps to feed them, and loads them up with treats. He says that they're his dogs too, that they just don't live together, but they could if I would let him live at Grandma Jane's.
A few weeks ago when we were at mom and dad's, I told Martin that it would be our last visit with Sunny. She was pretty old, I explained, and her body wasn't doing that well anymore. We knew that since she was pretty old and in a lot of pain, that she wouldn't be able to live much longer. I wanted to prepare him for this, and to give him a chance to say goodbye to his old dog, knowing that Sunny wouldn't be there the next time we went for a visit.
It was terrible. My poor boy, he cried so hard. Pretty much the whole day. Since that day, he's talked about Sunny every day, asking how she was doing and wondering if Grandpa Pack was bringing her treats. Yesterday I took the kids to the park and while we were there, I told Martin that Sunny had died earlier that day. He cried, struggling to put everything together in his mind. Trying to imagine what a visit would be like without Sunny there. He asked if I was sure, and I told him that Sunny had gone to the farm with Grandpa Pack and Uncle Steve and that she died while she was there, lucky because she was at one of her favorite places. I explained that Sunny would be buried at the farm, and that we could go visit that spot whenever we were at the farm. I wasn't sure if he understood the whole thing or if I had just made it more confusing, hoping that he wouldn't think that we'd actually see Sunny on those visits.
Later that day, I heard Martin talking about Sunny and explaining that she was real old and that she died that day. That we wouldn't be able to play with her anymore, but she was at the farm forever. We could visit her spot any time, but she would actually be in dog heaven. Our job now, he said, was to make sure that Maggie wasn't lonely.
Martin and his pal Sunny, October 2007
ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, so hard. I hope Maggie lives for many years to come, it is so nice the kids can have "their" pets at your parents house.
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That was a very nice tribute to a great dog and a wonderful grandson. I'm not sure what is worse, losing a good hunting dog or having a grandson cry over the loss of his friend.
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