Saturday, December 21, 2013

Marty

Marty 11-02-05

Brian moved to Albuquerque in the winter of 2000, and as soon as he was settled in he went to the PetsMart adopt-a-dog weekend and found Marty.  She came home with him that very day and was with him until yesterday when age and illness caught up to her.  He let me know by e-mail last night that she was gone.

I wrote back:

You gave her such a good life and she was so beautiful.  She brightened your days and filled the nights with warmth and comfort.  I know how you loved her with the depth that only those who know what pure devotion and affection bring, and you will ache with the loss for a long time.  The little reminders of her presence – a stray hair on the couch, a half-eaten bag of treats, a chewed corner of a book – will haunt you for weeks and months, but they will be comfortable reminders of good times, and the friends you made with her at the park and on the street will be there to hold you up.

She could not have had a better life or a better friend.

10 barks and woofs on “Marty

  1. Thank you so much for the kind words. Last night as I was driving home through the war zone of torn up streets that is the Northeast Heights these days, I passed by PetsMart at Academy and San Mateo, where I got her. I thought about that day, April 29th, 2000, when you drove me up there in the Pontiac and I got her. I remembered driving back down to the old adobe on Greigos Road with her in my lap, and I started crying all over again. That day back in 2000 I was getting a pet. I had NO idea of the adventures ahead, the people and opportunities she would bring into my life. I had no idea my life was about to change, radically, and for the better. I miss her more deeply then I imagined I would.

  2. Your friend the blogger knows so well how you feel because Sam left a hole in his life in this same way. I still think of that adorable dog bouncing over the snow drifts in Northern Michigan and the memory makes me laugh even as I regret having a world without Sammy.

  3. My sympathies to Brian. It is tough to lose a pet. Russ and I lost Barney 5/9/97 and Sprocket on 6/28/10. I cried for days and couldn’t talk. Three days before Sprocket passed, my 17 year old cat Missy disappeared and I never found her. I am truly sorry for your loss.

  4. Thank you everyone for the kind words and comments…I really appreciate them! And yes, Betty Cracker, we believe she was half Boxer, half Shar Pei. Two intelligent, willful, stubborn breeds. She always did things her own way, on her own terms.

  5. Brian, like others here I clicked through from Mustang Bobby’s comment on Balloon Juice, and just had to add my own condolences. What a gorgeous face Marty had — just full of love. I am so sorry for your loss, while being cheered by the thought that Marty had the best possible life any creature could wish for. {{{hugs}}} from Atlanta.

  6. Rest in peace, Marty. Losing a belovet pet is especially hard. They love us, listen to us, trust us without condition. The void they leave behind feels even darker, more empty precisely because we love them so much. Brian, you are in my thoughts.

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