Rocky is our November 16, 2014 Pup of the Week

We dogs live our lives for our parents. We accept certain sacrifices when we agree to take in a human. Because we never want our parents to worry about us we hide our pain when we are sick as long as possible. That is why my cancer was such a shock to my Mom and why everyone was so shocked when Rocky passed to the Bridge.

I have been here 17 months and I have learned to act with a certain amount of decorum when I see a friend cross the Bridge. I no longer run down the stairs and embrace them. I don’t ask them how they are doing since the answer is always: “Well not good I’ve been dying.” But my darn tail still wags when I see a friend, and it did when I saw Rocky. (I knew I should have had that thing circumcised when I was a pup. Now my back skin keeps betraying my emotion.)

I concentrated very hard to keep myself under control as I swore in Rocky in a dignified and solemn ceremony. Then I got runned over when Sierra came flying down the hll, bowled me over, jumped on Rocky and began licking her best friend as her uncircumcised tail wagged back and forth with such ferocity all the witnesses ran for the hills.

I was able to get Sierra off of Rocky and we all began to walk to Tommy Tunes’ house so Rocky could begin his job of watching over his Mom. On the way I asked him for the story that everydog has: How you got here.

Rocky told me that his legs were bothering him for a while but he wanted to keep it hidden from his Mom because he did not want to worry her. Soon it spread to his stomach, and when you have a tumor in your stomach, like the one I had in my lungs, you can’t hide it from your parents.

Once the symptoms that you have kept hidden for so long start to appear they overwhelm you. You hold the symptoms back, hold the symptoms back, and then, like water through a burst dam, the symptoms flood you To your parents it looks like the symptoms happened overnight when in truth you had been fighting to block the symptoms for a long time.

Our Moms love us so much that they do what Rocky’s Mom did. They take us to the vet, they hold us, and then our pain is gone, we are free at the Bridge, and all the pain, not the illness, but the pain, is transferred to our Moms, and, unfortunately there is no shot to take away that pain.

Saddest of all is that Rocky was an only dog, his parents best friend, their companion on long walks in the woods, his Mom’s trainer making sure she didn’t miss a step on the treadmill, their silly little GSD who loved it when they dressed him up.

The worst thing about being the only dog is when you go to the Bridge the sound of your heart no longer beating, your paws no longer running about the house, the absence of your barking, or your breathing, is so deafening that no other sound can be heard. When we got to Tommy’s house so Rocky could watch his over Mom on the TV and we could train him to be her angel the noise of his absence was so overpowering we had to mute the television.

After that we got Rocky his wings and taught him how to float down into his Mom’s dreams to give her some temporary relief, and soon we will be teaching him to turn into other animals and butterflies so he can visit.

So if you are Rocky’s Mom to keep her eyes open because after a short time Rocky will be coming to visit you. It won’t be the same, ever, but know you boy is trying to bring you comfort and joy.