Yesterday I said good bye to my best friend in the whole world on four legs. My wonderful dog, Josey, had to be put down yesterday at 2 o’ clock after 19 years of life.

He was a chocolate lab/Irish Setter mix. He looked very much like a lab until he got wet, then his hair would curl like a poodle! We got him from the Humane Society in Blackfoot Idaho when I was 4 years old. He was trained to be a hunting dog (ducks to be exact) and he would have been a fantastic hunting dog if it wasn’t for one thing: He couldn’t swim. Whenever we took him to the lake or when he would jump into our ditch in the backyard he would start inhaling the water, causing him to cough. You always knew when he was in the water if you started hearing him coughing! Anyway, because of this he couldn’t get the ducks out of the water, so all of that training and hundreds of dollars his previous owner put in was wasted. So he gave him to the Humane Society, who then gave him to us.

Because of his training he was the best puppy you could ever ask for. He knew how to sit, lay down, come, all of the basics (we never got heel to stick though). He did however, like all puppies, have a bad habit of chewing things, which included my favorite straw hat! One thing that came from his training that we could’ve lived without was whenever one of our hamsters or other small rodents escaped, he would find them and bring them to my room and leave them at my door, which would’ve been helpful if he didn’t slobber them to death! When we first learned this unfortunate fate it became a race to find the rodents before he did!

I don’t remember how old I was, but I was pretty young when we decided to give him a new home. My parents couldn’t deal with the chewing and destruction of floors whenever we left him home alone. That day we went to the park and took a lot of pictures and said our good byes. He went to a young couple for about a year, and I remember vividly the day when they called my mom. I was in the bathtub when my mom answered the phone, and after a few minutes she asked us if we wanted Josey back. I shouted from the top of my lungs YES! and practically fell out of the tub in excitement! Apparently both of the couple worked during the day and would leave Josey alone, which caused him to completely tear up the carpet under the door and bark until he was hoarse, disrupting the neighbors. After trying many different things and failing they decided to see in we wanted him back, so he returned to us and never chewed on out things ever again.

He lived with us ever since. He stuck close to my side when we ran out of the house during the fire, he was always at my feet during dinner or when I sat at my desk, and he always knew when and how to comfort me. We were best friends, and I naively thought we would be together forever. I imagined him being there when I found my husband, when I had my first kid, I even imagined us becoming secret agents and completing missions together (I was very into spies and secret agents when I was young).

But then he got older with me. He started going grey, deaf, and senile, which at first was funny because he started acting like a puppy again, but then he started reverting back to his hunting days and got a very low tolerance for smaller animals. He would attack our cats and chickens if they got too close; he even killed a couple of them. We learned to keep a close eye on him when outside and around any cats we brought inside. There were a lot of close calls with his health: One time he had a very hard time standing and walking. It turned out that he got hit by a car, and we didn’t really know at the time because he kept walking after it happened. He recovered from that and we were told he would live with us for a few more years.

When I left for Virginia I kept tabs on him, asking my brothers how he was doing. As far as I knew he was doing great. But then we came home, and he stopped eating, and if he did eat he would throw it up. It lasted for about a week, and we tried to find out what was wrong. It was the exact same food he always ate, it was even a brand new bag. The other dogs weren’t having problems so we knew it was something to do with Josey. Then we learned he ate something he shouldn’t have before we came home and my mom thought that it was causing a blockage in his stomach. After a few days of prayer and talking to each other, we as a family finally decided it was time. We spent this last weekend with him, saying our final goodbyes all over again, and then all of us went to the vet on Monday. It happened a lot faster than I thought it would, and I kept petting him until the vet said he was gone. Mom, Savanna and I all cried. Hard. The boys went to the lobby to give us some privacy, which I’m grateful for.

Now he is gone. It still hasn’t quite hit me yet. I hope that when it does it doesn’t break me. but I know that he is much happier. I prayed for him last night and I know that he has reached my Heavenly Father’s side, waiting for the time we’ll be reunited. Until then, I’m sure he’s with my Grandpa Fritz, going out with the angels that have been assigned to protect me. It’s very comforting to know that my loyal companion will always be there with me, no matter where I go or what I do. I’m going to miss him, but I’ll see him again. I know it.