Mickey’s Many Good-Byes – My Story
As a child, I never thought my pet dog would die. Of course, I knew he would eventually, but I never thought about that day. Unfortunately, I ended up experiencing the death of my dog more than once….
When I graduated high school and went off to college, I had to say goodbye to my dog. He was by my side every single day, and all of sudden, he wasn’t anymore. I knew he was in good hands, but it didn’t quite help how much I missed not having him to hug on those excruciating difficult college days.
Every homecoming was awesome. My mom had taught him to know I was coming just by saying my name, so he was ecstatic when I walked through the door. I was too. We used to jump up and down together with his front paws in my hands.
One day my parents broke the news to me, they were moving. They weren’t just moving to another state, but they were moving to another country. And yes, they were taking my dog with them. This meant I saw Mickey less. I only went to see my parents on Christmas break, and after college, I went off to do my own thing.
One day I decided to go visit my parents along with my new husband, and the saddest thing happened. There were no jumps up and down. He just barked at me looking at my parents and then back at me again. He didn’t remember who I was…
The good news is that in a couple of days, it seemed he either warmed up to me or remembered who I was. In either case, he was happy to see me come downstairs in the morning. Saying goodbye was painful….I knew because of his age, it may be the last time I would get to pet and kiss him.
A couple years later, my parents came to visit. During that visit, I didn’t ask about Mickey. I was afraid to ask about him because I knew there was a possibility he was gone. Sure enough, one day at dinner, my parents broke the news. They had to put him to sleep because he no longer should see, hear, and he was having seizures. They didn’t want him to suffer anymore.
This time, I lost him forever. I lost a part of him when I left for college, another part when my parents moved, another part when he didn’t know who I was, and then the final part when he really did depart this world.
I would have loved to have placed his remains in a pet urn. Being able to bring him with me everywhere, something I couldn’t have done before would be awesome. While I will always have my memories, it would have been so much better to have HIM by my side.
Thank you for reading my story.