I normally post MyTakes about my political or personal beliefs, but today I won't be doing any of that. Today I am just writing to say goodbye to our protector, our friend, and furry child, Ryoga.
Before human children even became part of our life, Ryoga entered it and filled that space we had been missing. None of the attempts at my wife becoming pregnant were working and we were beginning to lose hope that it would ever happen for us. We thought about how to bridge that gap in our family in other ways. We had actually tried adopting another dog, Bruschi, about a year earlier, but he came home with kennel cough. My wife stayed with him night and day, laying next to his kennel to care for him until finally we had to put that poor puppy down. It devastated her to no end the day I had to take him to be put down. A year later, we decided to finally give it another shot. When we saw his photo on the shelter website, she instantly fell in love with Ryoga. We went and adopted him that night. The two of them were inseparable, even to the point she broke her own rule about dogs sleeping in the bed with us.
Everything we were looking for in starting our own family, originated from this sweet lovable baby mixed shepherd. They loved watching Animal Planet and HGTV all day long. I remember his whines were so pitiful when he saw other dogs on the screen because he wanted someone to play with so badly. He was always happy to make friends with others no matter their size. We knew our family needed to expand further than just him and he reinvigorated our will to keep trying for children.
That's not to say he wasn't a brat at times. He did have a bad habit of pulling food off the counter like loaves of bread and other food items that we would forget to put up in a higher location. In our first house rental, we had a couch that he pretty much claimed as his own. It was an older one my parents had gotten rid of and he made his thoughts known on the design of that couch by slowly working on reupholstering it, or at the very least, removing the old design.
When our son was born, Ryoga's protective mode kicked in to high gear. Gone was the overly playful goofball that would slide around the tiles and instead was replaced with a noble protector who would curl around our son and corral him when he would toddle off out of sight of us. This didn't change either as our son got older and then eventually when our daughter came along. He even watched over our other dog, Akane, and eventually our cat, Sadie, to make sure they didn't get in trouble too.
About a year ago, he started developing cysts on his body, the worst of which was growing from his underbelly. We were told there wasn't much that could be done at the time given his age and other conditions. Over the last year, he started becoming afraid of shadows and would become spooked easily. He struggled to stand up and despite us putting as many rugs as we could down, his legs would give out on him and he would collapse to the floor. Cancer was spreading throughout his body quickly and the vet only gave him about 3-6 more months to live.
This is the last picture I have of him. This was today at the vet clinic, just before he was finally able to rest. Long gone were the days of playing tug of war with a rope with the kids, whining when he couldn't play with other animals, and bouncing up and down excitedly when we would go camping or go for walks. What I see when I look at this photo, is the tired body of one of the gentlest souls I have ever had the privilege of knowing. We selfishly wanted more time with him, but we couldn't make him suffer more just so we didn't have to.
We are heartbroken tonight. There is a void in our lives that can never be replaced in the same way. We lost a friend, a child, a brother, a protector, and one of the greatest reminders of the good left in this world that we could have ever asked for. Our pets don't care about our petty conflicts or political stances. They only want our love and are more than happy to show it to us in return.
I usually put a question to the rest of you on your thoughts on the MyTake, but this time all I want is just to see those pets in your life who have brought you the same happiness Ryoga brought to ours.
We should let them have the spotlight for this one.
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