REX LEAVES THE FARM

REX VOBISCUM
I guess I should've noticed that this athletic dog, who could run 40 KPH alongside my truck and jump 6 feet from standing to snatch a stick out of my hand, was beginning to drag behind and scrap going over fences. A few years ago I found him hanging by one leg from a top barbed wire around my coyote proof sheep pen. I cut him down, got him stitched up and he never stopped leaping any wire. After he ran under the back wheel of my truck for a gopher and had $500 surgery, he remained unafraid of moving vehicles. Often over his 10 years here (we got him as a year old dog from a vet, who was asked to put him down but realized Rex was a smart dog who should be on a farm). Rex quickly learned to chase coyotes and deer but not sheep or cattle, magpies stealing his food but not grouse. When he'd return pursued by a pack of 3 coyotes, I'd yell, they'd' flee and, Rex, encouraged, always returned to the chase until I learned to turn back towards the house. He always kept me in sight, even in the midst of digging a gopher hole. It embarrassed me whenever I came down to the bathroom in the middle of the night to see him standing on his doghouse, watching me through the kitchen window. (We got him for a watch dog) Sometimes as I was at the kitchen sink washing dishes I'd glance out and see Rex lying under the ash tree, waiting for a glimpse of me. Rex was the subject of many stories I wrote for my granddaugher, Olivia, who kept asking for more. After a great summer last year, fixing fences and planting trees (Rex always at my side) I murmured "Give me another summer like this!" Today on the first day of summer we buried Rex in the raspberry patch beside Linda's 2 cats, Jezebel and Meuslix. After the long winter sleeping in his cold dog house (except windy nights when Linda let him sleep in the porch), he deserved some good days and nights. But two weeks ago he injured himself jumping a fence. Some ointment he licked, off until prevented by a ridiculous plastic bonnet, cured the cut but he began to have peeing problems. After 2 days at the clinic ( The song "Old Shep" was in my head at this time) the vet found Rex had broken a bone in his penis and blockage to the urethra had cause the bladder to burst. (First time vet had seen this). Attempts to insert a catheter failed and euthanasia recommended. We could have seen Rex after he came to but we chose leave him be and brought him home in a plastic bag and buried him hoping to remember him as he was alive. This morning I choked back tears (over a dog!) On my first walk without Rex (he shamed me to go so many times when I wanted to stay in the warm house). Linda sat in the yard without Rex coming for a pat. We're both hurting but Linda is digging out photos of Rex and I left a note on the vet's bulletin board for a young farm dog, one that will have a tough act to follow.