Raja died today. The past several weeks her hips and back legs really started giving out and in the last day or so she was even having trouble getting in and out of the house and couldn’t go up and down the stairs on her own. She died while sleeping in the sun by the back door, probably dreaming of chasing rabbits. I was home alone with her all last week while Beth and the kids were in St. Louis. The vet had us switch medication and said we could feed her anything that she would eat until she got her appetite back. So…I fed her scrambled eggs for breakfast, and hamburger and rice for dinner along with tomatos and beans straight from the garden. She loved it 🙂 It was getting so bad this week that we thought we might have to make a difficult decision soon…but she made that decision for us today. She was a good dog even though she growled constantly at me for the first 4 or 5 years that we had her. And then she shifted her hatred towards the kids. Babies were definitely not her thing. She always was a one-owner dog and loved Beth, following her everywhere. We got her from the pound when she was three and always knew her first home must have been rough on her. We found out almost immediately that she dreadfully feared newspaper and that the word “no” would get her baring her teeth at you instantly. Beth found this out as soon as we brought her into our house for the first time straight from the animal shelter, Raja immediately went into a bedroom and started to pee – at which point Beth said “no” and got a nice snarl!). She was psycho for water – she attacked and destroyed many sprinklers and she couldn’t stop drinking if she ever was let loose in a lake or kiddie pool. We were at a friend’s cabin one time and they had a pontoon boat that had a green astro turf deck. Raja kept drinking and drinking water from the lake while she swam, and then every time she got back on the pontoon boat she would pee all over the deck thinking it was grass. We laughed and laughed at that. I don’t think we’ll ever have a dog again that doesn’t like chasing balls and instinctively knows not to leave the yard. Despite not having a fence (invisible or otherwise), Raja only left our yard once or twice (and that was because she was looking for Beth who was at the neighbors). We’ll miss you Raja.
This brings tears to my eyes. Raja was so lucky to have such a loving family and home for the past 11 years. She was a great dog. I’m so glad she passed away peacefully and in the place she loved to be the most.
Dogs truly do give so much and expect so little. Raja was fortunate to be part of your family. I’ll miss pulling on the rope toy with her. She was also fortunate to go peacefully in her sleep in a place in your home she enjoyed so much. It was good that you didn’t have to make that difficult decision which is tough, but often the most humane thing to do.
Casey gave us a little scare recently, but is now back to her old self (she’s still on 5 meds though). She’ll be 10 yrs. old next month – hard to believe.
Okay, you made me cry – are you happy?!!!! What a nice article you wrote and I loved the pictures. I’m so glad I got to see Raja a couple of weeks ago. She was a lucky dog to be a member of your household. Thank goodness for good memories and pictures.