Hard goodbye

Pets are special creatures in our lives. I have had the privilege to own many pets over the years. Lots of fish, 2 turtles, chickens, honeybees, caterpillars, frogs, snails, ants, rabbits, and lizards. But by far my favorite pets have been dogs.

 I adopted Rue as a pup. She was less than 12 weeks old when I found her and rescued her from a local shelter in February 2013. Denise went with me and encouraged me to get my own dog. She fell in love immediately with Rue. After 2 minutes, I did, too.

I named Rue after a character in Hunger Games book that Denise and I listened to as we traveled across the US together. 

I was able to train Rue to be house broken. I taught her to sit, stay, roll over, lay down and play fetch. She taught me way more than I taught her, as I learned responsibility and patience from her. I am happy that I was her main provider.

Rue loved chasing small animals that wandered into the yard. Birds were her favorite, she also loved deer, cats, and squirrels. I always thought she would have made a natural bird dog.

I sometimes made silly sounds to Rue, and she would always tilt her head, trying to figure out what that sound was. She always walked with her tail curled up. 

I remember going on many walks with Rue. The first few times we went on walks she refused to go far from the house. I realized as a rescue, she didn't want to leave the comfort of her home. But day by day she would walk a little further. After a week she learned to trust me. She learned to love walks. Any time I grabbed the leash she leapt to the door to walk. We often walked 3 times or more each night around the 1/3 mile circle of my community. Sometimes we strayed farther. These were special times for me, just a boy and his dog.

Rue was not a lap dog but loved when I sat near her or lay beside her.

We did many adventures together. We hiked in the mountains. We visited towns. We visited Iowa where Denise's family lives. We went to dog parks. We visited Granny (my mom).

As our family left to pursue missions, we had to say goodbye to Rue being a part of our daily lives. My mom agreed to keep her while we were out of the country. We still spent lots of time with Rue when we were home. Our kids knew Rue and played well with her. 

Sadly the time came to say goodbye to Rue for forever. She was diagnosed to have a mass somewhere between her spleen and stomach this past week. She wasn't eating and had lost all of her energy. It was time to say goodbye. It was time to put her down.

She lived a happy life for nearly 10 years. I have had many dogs as pets but because Rue was the first pet I cared for as my very own she will always hold a very special place in my heart. 

Goodbye Rue. Enjoy the prairies and the birds on the other side.