Abby was so hyper she rarely laid down, preferring to stand almost always.Abby loved to run and visit her doggie friends. Her desire to be free and explore the world was her undoing, though it was more so my own fault.
Escaped from her yard, she ingested some poison most likely anti freeze and simply and very abruptly died. She was a mere four years old and as anyone knows a four year old Lab is still a puppy, full of life and energy.
I'm not angry at the poor soul whose world is so small that he has to poison the wayward animals that pass unsuspectingly through his yard. He has never known the pure joy that fills your heart when you witness a dog's unbridled enthusiasm for something as simple as a walk around the block.
Abby loved her walks and she loved her pipe. The pipe, a 4 inch PVC 45 degree elbow that was the only thing she couldn't destroy and she carried it everywhere. She even tried to fly with it.
But only God knows why she loved to bark. She barked at everything, at me, at other dogs, at cars, at the golfers who passed by "her" yard. She barked at the wind, the blowing leaves and even barked at her pipe.
I often joked that if they had a "short bus" for dogs, Abby would be on it.
Despite all of her bad traits, and she had many, she always made me laugh. Perhaps down inside I understood her doggie frustration with the world and its cruelness. Her food dish being just out of reach, to my own goals so close but still unattainable, a passerby that wouldn't give her the time of day, to my being stuck on hold for an hour while waiting for Microsoft tech support. So I laugh even now.
Abby's partner in crime Madison, has stopped looking for her, I suspect she understands for Madison is a smart dog. Abby by comparison made Madison look brilliant. She knew Madison was the smart dog and she would follow Madison everywhere.
Even with all of the noise and destruction, I couldn't ever raise my voice at Abby and perhaps it was her eyes. She always wanted to please so badly and the look in her eyes said “I trust you”. Even if she escaped the yard, when I found her she would simply look up at me, sit down and then walk beside me, back to her home. No leash required.
I'll forever remember the way she looked at me when suddenly she became very sick, as if she knew I would be able to save her. Her eyes told me that she was hurting and that she was really afraid. I told her to lie down and that we'd go to the vet, but it was too late. I patted her head and told her softly that it was ok, and that she was a good dog as she took her last struggling breath.
She died next to her pipe on the sunny deck where she loved to bark at the wind. The leaves swirled around us and raced towards the sky. Her doggie spirit was finally free to explore and chase her dreams, forever a rainbow in my heart.
And now that she is gone and I amazed at how quiet and sad my home has suddenly become. Madison rarely barks, it was a job she always left up to Abby, and it's taken me a week to stop hearing her woo woo wooo at the wind. But her bark still echoes in my mind.
Now Madison sits alone on the edge of the deck with an empty space next to her where Abby used to stand and it's just so quiet.
But rainbows go on forever and
I know a Chocolate Lab who can fly.....
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