totes it's a blog

so my folks had to put our family dog, tyler, to sleep on saturday.
he was 13 years old and had a hell of a good life. i’ve been fortunate in my life to have never lost a pet, or a friend for that matter, until now.
i am going home to ohio this friday and had thought, realistically, that this trip might have been the last time i would see ty. i am saddened at the abruptness of the loss, but it was more unsettling having to listen to both my parents cry on the phone. an email below from my dad:

It is a very, very sad day for Bonnie & me.  We had Tyler put down today.  Tyler was not eating very well this past month.  On Tuesday, this past week he started throwing up every thing that we gave to him to eat. Then Friday morning he even started throwing up water that we gave him.  So we took him to the Vet to have him checked out.   At that time Tyler was very lethargic and also somewhat jaundiced.  Tyler spent the night at the Vet.  This morning we checked in with Vet and he explained to us that  Tyler’s liver was not functioning properly.  After much discussion with the Vet and a lot of soul searching, we came to the conclusion that it was best for Tyler to have him put down.  I can’t explain but that has to be the worst feeling with making that decision.  Both of us went to be with Tyler at the end.

We (Matt & Megan, too) were very lucky to have Tyler with us for 13 years.   He was the most gentle and smart (of course) dog.  He never gave us any trouble at all.  He also never was mean with anyone.  I know that our family (Bonnie, Steve, Matt & Megan) will miss him dearly.

my dad is pretty much heartbroken. ty was like the 3rd child.

the other thing is that he never really aged. he was the runt of this litter and never got bigger than 40 lbs (which is small for a husky/lab mix). he always retained a certain puppylikeness in his features and just started graying a bit around his muzzle only 2 years ago.  it’s slowly sinking in that i will not be greeted by my little old man when i go home in a few days. i’ll never clean the “gunk” out of his eyes or have a growling match or marvel at his cleverness to bribe anyone out of food. he was a very good dog. anyone who has had a companion for as long can understand that this hurts.

i just needed a little outward greiving.