Along For The Ride

July 3, 2017 / animar64 / Leave a comment

Today I thought- when it comes to life I feel like I just went along for the ride. It’s not the best way to reflect on your years but there it is.

Photo A.M. Moscoso

My Mom’s friend planted these trees over 40 years ago.

They were scrubby looking things when she first put them in and we used to like to jump over them. We made it most of the time. At least we didn’t kill any of the trees but I think we damaged a few.

I remember Sandy used to yell from her living room window, ” Hey cut that out. I don’t want a yard full of dead trees!”

Those trees outlived the daughter of my Mom’s friend, they outlived our pets and family members.

Her house is gone, we’re all but gone but the trees are still there.

Those scrubby little trees.

Photo A.M. Moscoso

Daily Word Prompt: Passenger

Domino

May 3, 2017May 3, 2017 / animar64 / 7 Comments

My dog Domino died about 4 years ago this October.

Domino was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and by managing her diet, giving her a chance to go on very short walks everyday and making sure she had lots of attention from me and her cat brothers ( who never left her side ) she had low if next to no stress in her day to day life. Domino had a few symptoms show up from day to day and none of the others that you would normally see in a dog suffering from this disease so I consider us lucky.

I won’t fool you, for the last two years of her life I was devoted to Domino and her care and it was a lot of work but I didn’t care-Domino was spirited and smart, she hated to get her paws muddy and loved getting her nails clipped and when she was a puppy she fought off and got the better of a dog that outweighed her by over 40 pounds.

Domino was an exceptional creature- second to none, two or four legged.

Domino and her brothers- when she got ill they insisted on going on walks with us.

One thing bothers me though- it bothered me the night she died and it bothers me now.

I had come home from work and as usual we went on our little walk, we ate dinner and we settled down to watch some TV in our bedroom.

After a few minutes started to cough and then she got up, turned around a few times in her bed, she got comfortable and she died.

Domino went on her own clock, I believe that.

She knew what she wanted ( her walk, her dinner with Mom and our evening of tv watching ) and after she had her regular day she let go.

Me and Domino were alone together on the night she died- I put her pink blanket on her but I didn’t cover her face.

She had been such a pretty dog that I couldn’t do that- and I thought that if there was little spark in there somewhere, I wanted her to see me and her cat brothers until she was really gone.

I don’t know what I wanted to give her in those final moments of her life- she sort of ninja moved her way out of the world- but I guess was what bothered me was that she knew she was going to die and I didn’t- I thought it was going to be another evening at home with my girl.

But it wasn’t like any other day – she died at the foot of my bed.

And I never got to say goodbye.