drake

“How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” -A.A. Milne

5 years was not long enough. 50 years probably wouldn’t have been, to be honest.

Drake came to us very much the same way that Gus did. I saw his picture on the Jackson County Animal Shelter Facebook page of this old looking dog and I knew he was meant to be with us. He was hairless and looked terrible, but his eyes.

Oh his eyes.

I can tell a good dog by their eyes.

And he was a good one.

I knew it.

We went to meet him (Ben was his name at the time) and he was perfect.

Ugly. Hairless. Sick.

But we knew we’d love him.

We brought him home and quickly discovered that his hairlessness was far worse than just being a stray dog with skin infection. He had mange and what we’d eventually discover to be allergies to basically everything. His skin would flare up 2-3 times a year, falling out and oozing with infection, and we’d spend 2-3 months trying to clear it up and get his hair to grow back. We spent thousands on vet visits, medication and specialists. He was allergic to everything. In the past 2 years, his health declined and he was having mobility issues and trouble moving his hips.

Deciding to put him to sleep was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. I kept putting it off for weeks, thinking his hips would get better, his skin would get better, maybe he wasn’t really in too much pain. I never wanted him to spend his last days completely miserable and in pain, and I knew that I wanted him to leave this earth remembering life being good. I wanted him to have some dignity, and not be completely incapacitated. Which makes it even harder to make the decision because his last 2 days were good ones. He had a few issues with walking, he fell a few times and struggled up the stairs, but for the most part he seemed okay. I have cried so many tears this weekend, worrying I was making a wrong decision, but I knew deep down if we kept holding on he’d only get worse and that wasn’t how I wanted him to go.

I miss him already. He was my shadow and was the calmest, sweetest boy you’ve ever met. In our house of loud chaos, he was the quiet calm. The other dogs make their presence known and are in your face, and Drake would always wait back patiently and quietly. I have never regretted rescuing him with all of his issues. I often think that had we not rescued him, not many other people would have put the time or money into keeping him healthy. We loved him so much these past 5 years.

My sweet Drake. I promise I’ll always rescue the broken ones and love them back to life for you, my sweet boy. My heart just hurts so badly.