Friday, March 30, 2012

El Gordo

Well peeps. It's been a sad week in the Burke house. Our beloved chihuahua Gordy is no longer with us.



You can imagine the reaction of our emotionally charged five year old. And her mother. And her father. We were hysterical. And then there's Cam Cam. Who keeps telling us that Gordy is at PaPa's house. I want to hold on to the two-year-old response because it's so pure and unassuming. Not jaded like the rest of us humans get.

The dog could seriously be a pain in the batookus but now that he's gone, I feel very sad. This morning I went to let him out and it took a good 10 seconds before I realized that there was nothing to let out.

Death is a funny thing, right peeps? Yes, Gordy was just a dog so we aren't grieving his loss like we would a human. But he was a dog that was part of our family for seven years, as long as either of my kids remember. We will miss him. And we are sad for him. He was a gift from my mother so that is a connection that no future dog could ever replace. So we are still grieving.

We took him on our road trip to Denver so when the Houdini like dog escaped, he wasn't familiar with the area and wandered out on to a busy street. His death was instant with no pain but there were some moments of sad "what ifs" which of course I felt the most. I should have arranged for him to kenneled or taken care of but I didn't and I can't go back. We try to teach our kids the importance of instant forgiveness and if we can't forgive ourselves instantly, then we can't expect the same of them.

So our puppy is gone. We will recover. Obviously. But it might take a minute.

"A really companionable and indispensable dog is an accident of nature. You can't get it by breeding for it, and you can't buy it with money. It just happens along." - E B White

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