Farewell Sweet Auggie

This is such a hard post to write. Yesterday we said goodbye to our little buddy and helped him over the rainbow bridge. In the last year we saw changes in his mental status as well as his physical abilities. He lost most of his eyesight and hearing. In the last couple of weeks I’m not really sure he knew who we were, and he seemed to be in pain.

Bob and I have had Auggie in our lives for the past fifteen years, and were told he was between 2 and 4 years old when we adopted him. He had been on Death Row at the animal shelter in Philadelphia when a kind volunteer saw him shivering in a cage, covered in mats and soaked in urine. He got his second chance when I saw him at a Petsmart adoption event; I immediately knew that he was meant to be my dog.

For years we gently shaped his behavior, teaching him to potty outside and not in a corner of the living room, impressing upon him the need to stay off the table, and insisting that he not try to kill the cat. Years. Yet eventually he learned! I taught him to alert me to dangers I could hear but couldn’t localize to, and he became my service dog. With those skills he was able to experience things and places that many dogs couldn’t. Auggie toured presidential homes and saw the laboratory of Thomas Edison. He romped on beaches in Florida.

He rubbed noses with the mules at the Grand Canyon and viewed mighty bison in Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

I’m not sure he was always as impressed with these places as we were (except for the bison—he really liked watching them,) but he was always alert and ready to help me as needed.

When Auggie’s hearing started to go he was retired as a service dog but we still worked hard to give him fun experiences.

He loved running with the big dogs at the dog parks we visited on our travels.

And he enjoyed traveling; as long as we were nearby, he was “home.”

Auggie also got a kick out of dressing up for Halloween and strutting his stuff. Put a costume on him and he was in his glory.

We could see that the quality of Auggie’s life was deteriorating these last few months. He was no longer facing each day with the joie de vivre that he used to, and he often seemed confused and in pain. It was time to make that sad decision.

Auggie, you will always have a special place in our hearts and we will miss you terribly. We will love you forever, our sweet boy.