[Spotlight Post] Diamond Dog

There’s not going to be a pen review today. I’ll try to get one in tomorrow or Wednesday, but not today. Today we said goodbye to one of our dogs. Diamond has gone over the Rainbow Bridge. We didn’t want to do it, but it was the responsible thing to do. Last week she was diagnosed with liver failure and was not eating much or well and losing energy.

Diamond and I had our “differences” – in fact, she really didn’t like me for the first couple of years. Jimmy was her “Pack”, I was the Big Bad Wolf. It didn’t help that she was severely Alpha and not overly fond of other females. I was a female that would not go away. But after a while, we reached a detente. Apparently she had a “4 year cycle” for accepting new people into her Pack.

I thought she was just mellowing in her advanced aging, but when we brought Loki into the fold, she tried to basically ignore him until four years in. Then, suddenly, last Spring, Diamond started playing with Loki. It was a huge step forward.

I always swore that in the nine months before she adopted Jimmy, Diamond was raised by a Cat. She would only let us pet her for a short amount of time before she was “done” with us. She only wanted Me when there was weather, she didn’t feel good (until the end), or when Jimmy wasn’t around. Mostly when Jimmy wasn’t around was I ‘okay’. She would growl and show teeth when she didn’t want me near her – so when I could pet her this week without being growled at? It was a sign.

I’m going to miss the old coot dog. There were the occasional spats between Loki and Diamond (usually when food was involved). My mom and dad have a dog because Diamond refused to admit that Buddy existed after we found him wandering the neighborhood. And toward the end, she ran away (literally) from all other dogs – including three adorable boxer puppies – she did her “nope” and started home. But she was our old coot dog.

I know it’s not overly linear, coherent, but this is the end of an era. Diamond was Jimmy’s dog from before we were married. Though we say Loki is “my” dog, we got him together. Any other critter that comes into our home will be “ours” not his or hers. And I would give almost anything to have that era not end just yet. But…Diamond’s birthday “observered” was May 5th. She didn’t quite make it to 14 by our estimation, but that’s still a good dog lifespan. And we did give her one heck of a last weekend at the Lake with hamburgers and chicken nuggets and even a little bit of ice cream (whatever she would eat). We will miss her a lot.

Tags: Diamond, dog, family, Spotlight