My wife and our beautiful boy on a good day at the park this past summer.
Joey was a beautiful Bassett hound that we had met when he was still a tiny puppy. We named him after Joey Ramone, who had just passed away from lymphoma. A few weeks ago, our Joey was diagnosed lymphoma as well. He fought as hard as he could, but at almost thirteen years old, he was just too tired. So, on Monday, our excellent vet helped him along to his next adventure.
My wife and I are both heartbroken, but I want to try to think about the good times that we had together, so I am going to write a list of just a few of my favorite memories and things about Joey.
When he was a puppy, his ears were longer than his legs and he loved to run. So, sometimes he would run so hard that he would trip over his ears and do a backflip.
He used to snore so loud that it sounded like another person sleeping in our house.
When I came home from a trip, if my wife happened to have him outside and he saw me, he would charge across the yard until he got to me and would just fall down on my feet.
We would walk him down to the Krystal near our house and he would sit and stare at the door while my wife went in to get him burgers. He would watch until he couldn’t see her anymore, then we would walk around the parking lot until she came out. As soon as he saw her, he would run across the parking lot, straining at his leash, until he fell down at her feet.
He didn’t care about any toys that we gave him. Like, at all.
Even though it looked incredibly uncomfortable, he would try to climb up between the van seats just to be closer to us.
He never barked in anger, but he had a very deep, loud bark that I would give anything to hear again.
He had great big paws, with big rough pads. If he wanted us to pet him in a different spot, he would use those paws to very gently move our hands to where he wanted to be petted.
His big sad eyes, big dopey smile and his big happy grunting sounds. He was the happiest dog that I have ever seen
He wanted to smell everything and wanted to be friends with all of the cats.
He loved the pet store, but hated getting baths there. But, he never struggled or fought when we would give him a bath.
I don’t think he had any control over his tail and we always called it ‘helicopter tail’ because of the way he spun it around instead of wagging it.
I made him a ramp to try to get up our stairs easier. He didn’t like it, but he would always try to use it, which I think was just to make me happy.
His hair had gone almost completely white, but he had little brown spots on his belly that reminded me of when he had dark brown hair as a puppy.
He cuddled me harder than anything has ever cuddled me. He loved me and he adored my wife.
I miss you, Joey. You were a good boy.
---update---
I forgot to add this: My wife saw a picture where someone had left a box of tennis balls at their local beach when they lost their dog and liked the idea. So, she took a box of toys and a bunch of treats and left them in the park pictured above. We are going to go back and refill it in his memory every few weeks.
Also, here is a video of a friend of mine performing a song he wrote about losing dogs a while ago. I hope that it can mean something to some of the people that have posted comments below.