I lost my friend today….our dog Jake.

Jake came to our family when we bought a ranch north of Spokane.  We figured that since we had a ranch we needed to supply it with all kinds of critters!  We did a lot of reading about dogs and their character since this was our first dog.  We knew we didn’t want a fu-fu dog on a ranch and we wanted one smart enough to help us with the horses.  We decided on a border collie after quite a bit of research on different breeds.  We visited a breeder north of town and initially thought one dog would do the trick.  We looked at all the puppies and decided on one (Max) but couldn’t quite take our minds off one of his brothers….so we bought two!  We took Max and Jake home with us and immediately became attached.  They were playful pups and really, really cute.

At six months old Max decided to chase a deer into the woods and came back limping on three legs.  We took him to the vet and they amputated his right rear leg saying he must have been hit by a car.  I asked the vet what his quality of life might be with only 3 legs and he replied “God gave dogs 3 legs and a spare, he’ll do just fine”.  And he did.  He lived to be 12 years old and could outrun his brother on most days.  It was a sad day when Max passed, but he was very sick and it was best.  That’s a hard decision to make….

After we lost Max, Jake seemed to be a little off.  He would look around for his brother and sulk in the corner a lot.  We knew he missed his brother just as much as we did – after all, they were best friends.

After some time Jake got better, but he would stick by our side like glue.  It seemed we were always tripping over him.  We couldn’t leave him alone.  After we moved into the RV we left him alone for a bit and came back to find he had jumped up onto the dining table to try and see us outside….leaving deep scratches in the table where he tried to climb up.  Needless to say we couldn’t leave him alone again, so we started leaving him in his kennel.  Jake didn’t like the kennel much as he’d rather be with us.  In the car, in the truck, into Lowes….it didn’t matter as long as he was with us.  Everywhere we would go he would smile at all the people – and they could feel it!  He was such a people dog.

Jake started coughing quite a bit a couple of months ago.  We couldn’t quite figure out what was making him cough so the vet suggested an x-ray of his chest.  He found a very large tumor in his abdomen that was attached to his liver.  The surgery was to be done with an overnight stay at the vet, but he didn’t wake up.  We lost our very good friend and faithful companion today and our hearts are aching.  It will take some time to get over the fact that he’s not at our feet all the time, that he’s not there for kisses in the morning, or begging for popcorn in the evening.  So long my good friend….we will miss you so much.