Nine months today.

1. 
   rose 2007 11 03 at 11:35:03 am

   sending hugs, comfort and understanding your way..
   and a shoulder, too, if needed.

2. 
   jason 2007 11 03 at 12:24:53 pm

   Time, Chris.  That’s all that will make a difference.  It’s been nine years as of October 28 since I lost Henry, a member of our family for more than two decades.  It takes little to make me cry even today.  Time helps, bit by bit, moment by moment.

   You have my sincere appreciation for your continued love of Zeke, and you have my sympathies for the pain that will endure for some time to come.

   At least its born of love.  That matters.

3. 
   sravana 2007 11 03 at 12:49:49 pm

   {{{Chris}}}

   Yes, he was a very good dog.

4. 
   Charles 2007 11 03 at 3:19:24 pm

   I don’t have the slightest clue what to say, really, except that I really think I do understand.  Nine months is such a short period of time, and it’s probably seemed like forever to you.

5. 
   Theriomorph 2007 11 03 at 4:52:21 pm

   .

   Words. Stupid, inadequate words.

   Sending love, and a hug.

6. 
   kathy a 2007 11 03 at 4:56:27 pm

   ((( chris )))  zeke was a helluva wonderful dog.  loved ones so close and true are few in our lives.

7. 
   kathy a 2007 11 03 at 5:06:38 pm

   don’t know why, but i also remember dates.  the first year after a loss is particularly crowded with them.  some last.  sometimes i don’t know why i feel twitchy and disconcerted on a date, until i remember.  xoxxo

8. 
   Chris Clarke 2007 11 03 at 5:16:24 pm

   I went out and did a little trail running at Point Pinole in his honor. There’s a stretch of trail along the Bay there where he had some of his last hikes, from the parking lot out to the point, and a couple times in 2004 I wasn’t sure he was going to make it out to the Point.

   But he always got his joints loosened up and was trotting by the end of the hike, especially after a nice soak in the disgusting bay muck.

9. 
   Lesley 2007 11 03 at 5:38:24 pm

   am I wacked or are many many domestic animals getting sick in ways they never used to.  (God knows, the farm animals have serious problems thanks to big agri.)

   Cancer, arthritis, diabetes (type two!), tumours, strokes…wtf?  The dogs of my youth never suffered like this.

   I suspect contaminated chemicalized plasticized pet food. I can’t ignore the fact that veterinarians have better diagnostic tools today.  Still, North Americans are sicker than they’ve ever been and so are their animals and we have in common the poisoned food supply.

   If I had a dog these days I wouldn’t feed it anything out of a can from a supermarket.

   (Thinking of Charles here and wishing his pooch and his family all the best.)

10. 
    kathy a 2007 11 03 at 6:59:08 pm

    leslie—this is just my own take, it may not be accurate.  but i see many pets living much longer than when i was growing up—just because of preventive care, spay/neuter efforts, etc.  and i see a lot more pets being diagnosed with things—as you said, vets have better tools now.

    my sweet and independent cat friskie-toes died a few weeks ago.  he had tumors all over; he was in such pain; it was very hard to call the end-of-life vet, but that was the right decision.  for friskie, i made a conscious decision to not put him through the diagnostics that might have told us what it was, or led to invasive treatment.  just the diagnosis would have been torture for him.  even gentle vet visits were torture for him—this sounds exaggerated, but i swear it is not.

    as pet owners, we make the best decisions we can at each step.  i don’t think we should feel guilty about doing that—it is what we can do, and what we must do.  the most important thing, for our pets and us, is the loving.  in the end, it is the best and only thing we have to give.

11. 
    virgotex 2007 11 04 at 9:54:50 am

    Time is relative.

    Peace.

12. 
    Rachel Shaw 2007 11 05 at 11:10:57 am

    (o)

13. 
    Fred Levitan 2007 11 05 at 7:51:16 pm

    Spyder - Or the fact that Keith Richards is still alive and Jerry is not? 

    This could be the last time, this could be the last time, maybe the last time, I don’t know…

14. 
    blondie 2007 11 06 at 4:02:51 pm

    Oh, Zeke.
    He was a good dog.
    You gave him a good life.
    He gave you a better one.
    I don’t think we can ask for more.