Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wulf Ratbane" data-source="post: 2024808" data-attributes="member: 94">I'm going to spoiler this one, because it is so sad, but it is beautifully sad.[spoiler]DOG'S DEATHby John Updike She must have been kicked unseen or brushed by a car.Too young to know much, she was beginning to learnTo use the newspapers spread on the kitchen floorAnd to win, wetting there, the words, "Good dog! Good dog!" We thought her shy malaise was a shot reaction.The autopsy disclosed a rupture in her liver.As we teased her with play, blood was filling her skinAnd her heart was learning to lie down forever. Monday morning, as the children were noisily fedAnd sent to school, she crawled beneath the youngest's bed.We found her twisted and limp but still alive.In the car to the vet's, on my lap, she tried To bite my hand and died. I stroked her warm furAnd my wife called in a voice imperious with tears.Though surrounded by love that would have upheld her,Nevertheless she sank and, stiffening, disappeared. Back home, we found that in the night her frame,Drawing near to dissolution, had endured the shameOf diarrhea and had dragged across the floorTo a newspaper carelessly left there. Good dog. [/spoiler]I've had two dogs in my life and both were killed by a car-- my own pup, when I was less than five, my father ran over in the driveway. I used to sit in the garage with Humphrey and eat his dog food with him. (I remember it tasting good, too.)When I was a teenager our dog was run over by a police car. He said, "Bring me a shovel and a garbage bag." I ran into the house and didn't go back, but my sister told me afterwards he yelled at them for letting the dog run loose. She didn't know any better. She loved to run. Our back yard was a half-acre to its own, and were right next to the high school, up against their baseball and football fields. Our front yard was just too close to the street.Dogs are amazing. Pure goodness, through and through. I have to remember that when my current dog is knawing at my fingers or pulling my sleeve or holding his toy and pawing incessantly at me, or just flat out humping my arm, desperate to wrestle and play, even though I'm trying to get some writing done.I'm sorry you lost your dog, Stone Angel. I hope you have happy memories.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

Verification