- click the small pictures to enlarge -

We live sort of in the country.  The houses aren't at all close together.  Most folks have at least 3 acres of land.  Bill likes to say, "We have acreage," because we have over an acre... a whopping 1.02 acres to be exact.  We live near the end of a deadend street, so there is very little traffic.

We know most everyones' dogs - many by name.  They wander around and don't bother anyone.  We keep water in a bowl on the deck for them - especially when it's hot out, pet them, play with, treat them much as if they were our own.  We consider them family. We keep our own dogs in our back yard, when they aren't in the house.  If they aren't in the fenced yard, our pups go off too far and stay gone too long.  ...but that's another set of stories all together.

Our neighbors a couple of houses down are a young family with 3 kiddos, 4 dogs and 2 black cats.  One of their dogs is a yellow lab looking male dog named Moses.  To look at Moses, one knows he has a definite story and is concerned that he has had a hard life.  Well, that is until he found his current humans.  I don't yet know the full story of Moses, though I hope to one day soon.

He doesn't have his front left leg. It has healed well and he is amazingly quick with his 3 remaining legs.  They are all in good health.  He has a soft, fur-covered, non-discolored growth/tumor on his left side.  On his right hip, he has a growth/tumor that is connected only by a thin piece of tissue; and is a little smaller than golfball-sized.  The growth on his right hip has no fur and is pink and blackish in color.  One wonders how and why it is still connected.  But it is.

Moses is very thin.  His digestive and urinary systems seem to be in good condition.  Yes, he spends lots of time at our house - in our yard making himself at home, as it were.  He is not starving.  His family loves him and takes good care of him, so we attribute the thinness to conditions unknown to us that he must have.  The first time we had seen Moses, we put a little bit of dog food out for him.  He wasn't at all interested - so we know he gets plenty to eat at home.

Moses loves to play fetch.  Oh my, does he LOVE to play fetch.  He will bring his tennis ball, or another toy with him when he visits.  If we stop playing fetch with him - but he isn't ready to be through, he will bark short, quick barks at us to "encourage" us to play more.  He likes to visit our next door neighbor and uses the same tactic with them.  We'll then see the ball goes flying out in the yard, with Moses in quick pursuit.

Over the last several months, Moses has needed to stop and rest more often.  He will play for a while, then lay down and rest a bit.  Then he's back on his feet ready to go full speed again.  As he makes his way around the neighborhood, he will lay down to rest every 40 to 50 feet.

A few weeks ago, Moses came to visit and he layed in the monkey grass (lilyrope) around the birdbath to take a nap.  This isn't unusual.  It's nice and cool there under the shade of the large liveoak trees.  When he gets thirsty, he just puts his chin over the edge of the birdbath and slurps away.  Yes, he does this even though there is a perfectly good dog bowl full of water just 8 feet away on the deck.  What can I say?  He likes drinking out of the birdbath.

We noticed Moses even more than usual during this visit though, because he was acting differently.  It was lunch time and we had a good view of him out of the bay window as we ate.  He couldn't go more than about 5 feet without laying down. His eyes were not sparkling like they usually do.  He didn't look like he felt too good.  We went out to visit him...  He didn't get up and he only wagged his tail once.  Always before he would wag his tail a good bit, even if he was laying down, as we would walk over to pet him.

We made sure the water bowl was beside him and went back inside to work.

Suppertime came.  Moses was still in our yard on the grass near the deck.  This was different.  He usually made his way home as his family started arriving.  All the neighborhood pups know their humans' vehicles.

Then it was nightfall.  We feared Moses wouldn't be able to make it home.  So, we put out a bit of dog food for him and made sure he had plenty of water.  He was in a good spot in the grass, near the base of one of the large trees.  It would be a comfortable place for him to spend the night.  We walked to Moses' family's house around 9pm.  We updated them on his condition and told them he was welcome to spend the night at our house.  They didn't seem to pick-up on our concern.  Maybe we weren't direct enough.  It did not matter.  He was safe.

The next morning Moses was still alive.  I was plesantly surprised.  As I walked to pet him good morning, he didn't wag his tail at all.  His eyes looked tired.  I pet him and talked with him.

Through the morning and at lunch we continued to check on Moses.  His breathing became labored.  When I checked on him a few hours after lunch, Moses had passed on.  He was in his favorite place in our yard.  Stretched out on the cool monkey grass, next to the birdbath.

His family wasn't home yet.  I intently listened for their truck to go by, hoping his mom would be home soon from picking the kids up at school.  I heard her go by and quickly walked to their house.  I was quite out of breath upon reaching the front door... both from the quick walk and from being anxious.  After I rang the bell, Moses' mother human answered - and she was alone.  Thank goodness!  I didn't want to break the news to her in front of the littlest one - he's only about 6 years old.  I asked her to come outside and told her Moses had passed away.

She was obviously saddened.  She said Moses had always rebounded before. Now I understood why they hadn't been more concerned the night before.  Moses had done something similar before. They had trusted he would rebound again.

We discussed the best way to have Moses be back with his family.  She came to get him in her vehicle.  The tears flowed much more when she saw him. We wrapped him and gently placed in him the car.  She and I shared a big hug and Moses got to go home.

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