About 4 1/2 years ago, I saw him. He wasn't like the rest of his siblings. He didn't look like a American Bull, he looked like a Doberman. He wasn't running around playing, he was snuggled up tight in a ball. I wanted to take him home.
My husband and I had talked about another dog. Although we didn't talk about it often, we knew we probably had another year with our shepherd (his dog and then our dog). Two years would be asking too much. We weren't actively seeking to add to our fur family, but we were not against it.
Arlo came home with us 2 weeks later. Others wanted him, but it was too late---we had claimed him. He was a stubborn, cute, playful dog. He was something to look at--beautiful. Pounds of girth ran at you when he came -- some found it frightening. He loved kids and he loved people, he just didn't want you to know it. He was smart like that.
Lobo passed about 6 months later. It was sad, hard, and everything you can imagine for all of us. She had led a good, long life. We miss her and always will.
We often joked about how Arlo was either extremely smart or extremely dumb. It's not fair we said, we can't compare him to Lobo. Sheps are very smart. The motto "can't stop, too stupid" was coined by a family friend and it stuck. Of course, Arlo wasn't stupid, he was actually smart about a lot and just not smart enough to care about other things. Or maybe that was smart too?
This morning Arlo, 4 next month, was ill and laying down in an abnormal spot. He never came to my bed last night. He always sleeps with me. Arlo was sick, he didn't look well, he almost looked...well you know...on and off the last 6 months, our until then healthy dog hadd challenge after challenge (that's HR talk for problem after problem).
My husband took Arlo to the ER Vet. Neither of us knew if he would even make it there. We didn't know what was wrong, we just knew it wasn't good. Not good at all.
Arlo's liver was slowly shuting down. His body was shutting down. There was nothing the vet could do, nothing. So we did the only thing we could do. We took his suffering away. My husband was with him the entire time, showing him love and care. I was home with our son, curled on the couch as we both cried and hugged. Explaining "liver sickness" to a 9 year old and knowing Arlo could not be helped was not what I thought this Saturday would bring.
Gabriel wanted his cousins, we went to my brother's house for a bit. It was nice to have people, to not think for a bit.
We came home. There was no dog in the window anxiously awaiting our entrance. There was no dog to let outside. No water bowl to check. No dog to trip over. No dog to follow me around. No dog.
There was no dog. and then Gabriel summed it up.
"God is saying, can't stop too stupid." --Gabriel
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