Goodbye, sweet PIERRE
It is with the heaviest of hearts, that we say goodbye to you, our tired little buddy.
On Valentine’s Day, three years ago, we went to the Muttville shelter for older dogs and found you – shy and shaky little PIERRE.
PIERRE was the name that they had given you at the shelter, but we liked it, and we kept it. It fit you well, and confirmed the French-Canadian heritage that comes with becoming one of our family members.
You were found as a stray walking the streets of Oakland. At the shelter, you were sad, and alone, and scared. But we knew that you were a distinguished little gentlemen, who just needed someone to love you, and to care for you.
You came to us with deep and old wounds – both physical and emotional. And while we’ll never know the joys or sorrows of your first ten years, we committed ourselves to ensuring that your journey to find us was worth any pain that you may have suffered, any despair that you may have endured.
When I picked you up and held you for the first time, I knew that we also needed you. You brought us so much joy, surprise, smiles, laughter, pride, concern, stress and now…loss. In the end though, we gained so much more than we have now lost, because we could never have imagined that anything in this world could love us as much as you did, or challenge us to grow as people, or turn our lives upside down, or give us a different perspective on everything that we thought we knew.
Of course, no amount of vet visits, treatments, pain meds, massages, soft beds, cozy blankets, peanut butter treats, or fancy vests can keep an old dog from getting older. And so now, in our home, on a soft pile of your favorite blankets, in front of a warm fire, we lay beside you and quietly whisper goodbye to you, sweet PIERRE.
Someday, we’ll walk with you again along the Embarcadero, lie with you in the soft green grass, and stand together in the sunny spots beneath the Redwood trees.
Until then, goodbye sweet sweet PIERRE.
Mark & Kelly
5/9/18
