Twelve hours from now Bruti will be dead. His kidneys have failed. Yesterday he stopped eating. Today he drank a little bit. I have already found a soft spot in our coffee trees and have dug his grave. He will then be with his brothers and sisters and his other packmates
Last year this time we had 11 dogs. My wife and I met late and children were never a possibility with us. So we filled the hole with dogs. Bruti was the offspring of a purebred American Stafford Terrier with a sneaky heat and an 8 month male puppy we brought home from the post office. Post office puppy was with us one day and I got a call from my wife telling me we had one dog with two heads.
Bruti was the biggest puppy of the litter. He could have been boss but he hated to fight with his littermates. Instead he would go sit in the shade with his unfocused look and observe. Turns out he was deaf as a stone. The rest of the litter started picking on him but with his size he just shook them off. As he grew larger you could always find him under the plum tree all by himself.
Two years pass. One day I find 7 newborn puppies on the side of the road. Some asshole threw them away. We call the humane society and they told us if we brought them in they would be put down. So my wife and I decide to raise them. We buy the formula and before we could start feeding Bruti is scratching at the door. We tried to ignore him but he would not go away. The new puppies would not eat and we have a dog tearing away at the door. I opened the door and Bruti comes and hops into the puppy pen. He starts licking them and they all start to eat. Every 4 hours he reported for duty and we saved most of the throwaway puppies.
The throwaways (later named Batch 2) made Bruti a new dog. When they opened their eyes they saw Bruti. Overnight Bruti went from Omega to Alpha of his own Sub pack. And he took his job seriously. Each of Bruti's brothers and sisters knew not to mess with Batch 2.
Time passes. Our dogs aged and so did we. Bruti's mother Puda passed last April. Last November three more died in rapid sucession. Now its Bruti's turn. As I write this Bruti's father and the remainder of his pack has gathered around him. They have been with him for the last few hours. I do not think he will make it to the morning.
So Bruti will die with his friends and family around him. In the end I think that is all we can ask for.
UPDATE Bruti passed at 4.02AM Maui time His crew was with him until the end. Aloha All