In Memoriam – Balu

Been thinking whether or not it was a good idea to post this on my blog, but decided I just had to give my beloved dog a special place.

A young boy, around 8 watched the Vet put his dog down. The boy wanted to be with gis companion to the end. Later the Vet, the father and the boy were talking about the dog. The dad was wondering why dogs have such short lives compared to us.

The  boy piped up:” Well, aren’t we here to learn to love? Well, dogs know already how to love so they don’t have to stay so long”

Balu came to me about 4,5 years ago at the age of 6 or 7, when I wasn’t thinking of adding another dog to my household. I first saw him in the back of my vet’s car, when meeting up with her to get some paperwork done on my horses, and found it peculiar to see this dog in her car. I thought he was absolutely gorgeous, and asked her what was wrong with him.

She answered me that he was perfectly healthy but that his owners wanted her to put him down because they said he was dangerous. I looked at him again and thought he didn’t look dangerous at all. But she insisted that was what the owners had told her and apparently had bitten one person of their family.

She went on saying that if I wanted to give him an extra chance, to take him with me right at that instant, because she was due in the vet clinic half an hour later to put him down, so I had to make up my mind fast.

I wasn´t at all convinced that this was a dangerous dog. He just looked too sweat, too good to be dangerous and if he ever bit at all, it was most likely the fault of the people dealing with him.

He came home with me, in the back seat of my car and was taking up most of the space. I had an hours drive home and during that time I was thinking I was mad … driving home alone with a “dangerous” dog in the backseat and not knowing how he would respond to my other 2 dogs, but I could at least give him that last chance.

We arrived home and some how it felt like he had always been part of the family.

He was great with the other dogs, and turned out to be a super friend. For one he would keep strangers of my grounds and living alone in the countryside, that was pretty neat. People would look at him and respect him. After all he was big and impressive but the most he would ever do was hug and lick visitors to death.

If I was out with the horses, he would start barking at them the minute they came too close to me, or at least that is what I think he must have thought, cause he’d stop as soon as they would take a little bit of distance and look at me, wagging his butt, and you could almost see in his eyes he was asking me “ hey mom, I did a great job of protecting you, right?”

Last few months his age really started to show, but he was still his good old self, butt wagging and happy. Until this morning when all of a sudden life was over for Balu. The vet said it must have been a heart failure and I can only find comfort knowing that he did not suffer.

It was just his time to go.

I buried him near the gate; in the same spot he was always waiting for me to come home. I know it will be hard these next few weeks to come past his grave but I am sure one day all the pain and sadness will have made room for all the happy memories of a great dog.

Cause that is what he was, a great dog and a true member of my family and he will always stay with me in my heart and now, in my blog too.

May you rest in peace my friend…

Filed under: Personal

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