Wednesday, July 13, 2011

My Reunion with Skippy

I have had more than one lost pet in my life and been reunited with most of them. The one I remember the most was Skippy. Skippy was my dog. I had adopted her from the local animal shelter and taken care of her minor ailments and she was my buddy. I named her Skippy because she had a happy little skip to her step.

My mom had kicked me out of the house using Skippy as leverage. (She told me the dog had been hit by a car and when I went to check on her she told me I couldn't come back in the house) After a couple of days I returned to get a few of my clothes and to pick up Skippy and she told me she had taken Skippy off. She told me she had driven in the general direction of the house where I was staying and crossed a couple of mountains and put her out of the car.

Of course, I was heartbroken. (which was the reason she did it) and Bobby and I started for the house and after we had crossed the 2 mountains I started to look for her. We were just rounding a curve when I spotted her out of the corner of my eye. I made Bobby stop and I got out of the truck and started to holler for Skippy.

She was playing with a couple of dogs she had found in the yard she was in. As soon as she heard me, her ears perked up and she made a beeline for me. She was one happy dog and I was one happy mama. She took a flying leap and jumped into my arms and started to yelp and cry just like a baby. I was crying. It was a sight.

Bobby loaded her in the back of the truck and I rode in the back with her to his sister's house where we were staying. It was a happy reunion. We got our own place soon after but we weren't allowed to have pets. We left Skippy with Jeannie and we bought her food and necessities and we visited a couple of times a week easily. Things were good.

One day Jeannie called us. "Something was wrong with Skippy", she said. We went to her house and it was obvious that she had been poisoned. We took her to the vet. I was begging her to live the whole way. When we got to the vet's office she told us that it was antifreeze poisoning. Skippy was in liver failure and the vet told me she had a 97% chance of dying. When a veterinarian tells you something like that you know you should put the dog to sleep.

I wanted to tell her to put Skippy down but I couldn't say the words. So, the vet made an effort to save her. She died that night. It was the first time I had to put one of my pets down on my own and I just couldn't tell them to do it even though I knew it needed to be done. Always before my mom had taken care of stuff like that. I hope she didn't suffer anymore than she had to because I was so weak.

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