The boys and I decided to move from the house we were in to something on the north side of town - closer to family and friends and a lot of the things I love about this town, like the square. So we packed up all our stuff, rented a truck and us and a bunch of my friends spent a Saturday moving all our worldly possessions to this big old house with a gigantic yard (yes, there will be barbeques!).
Sadly, this is where we lost our pet. Ginger, my rat terrier rescue dog, who was not known to be the brightest crayon in the box and who would bark at leaves falling from trees, discovered the new neighbor's dogs. Two rather large but friendly-looking pit bulls. I have no issues with pits, having had several myself. Plus, there was an electric fence running across the top and bottom of the chain link fence, so I thought, "no problem."
Oh, there was a problem. Apparently, electric fences meant nothing to these dogs. Apparently, these dogs went for walks on a regular basis all by themselves. And apparently, the neighbor would leave them outside all day while she was at work, pretty much giving them free reign.
So just a little over a week after we moved in, the neighbor's dogs decided they were done barking at my dogs and came over the fence. Chopper may be an old dog, but he's damn fast. Ginger -- well, she had always had a problem with her weight. Her former owners withheld food from her, so any time she had food, she would gorge herself. We had been working with her to get her slimmed down, and we were having some success. She was a lot more active and happier. Unfortunately, she was still slow - and they caught her.
My youngest son was home, and the neighbor on the other side of my house heard a ruckus, saw what was happening and ran to my house, pounding on the door. My son and my neighbor ran the pits off and scooped up Ginger, making a mad dash to the vet. I must give credit to the vet -- he was a very kind man and he did everything he could for us and for her, but the damage was too much. She survived for about a day and a half, and we were able to bring her home with us before she passed.
It's been almost two weeks, and I'm sitting here with tears running down my face as I type this. So what if she wasn't very bright? She didn't deserve that. She had just turned six years old in December.
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Well, I don't think that was enough teary-eyed writing, so here's another thing that will probably make you cry. It's an amazing video put together by a young poet who has obviously "been there." Me, too. Please watch this, and remember.....they were wrong.
