Upon returning home, some people have the habit of acknowledging their presence to their family in the house. Even the pets happily run to their master and wagging their tails mean they are happy seeing his arrival. Some pet owners have gotten used to furry babies waiting for their return home after a long day at work.
When Roman comes home from work every day, he habitually looks up at the window first because his dog Toby is always there waiting for him. This heartwarming and habitual behavior lasted for a full eleven years.
“ He came into my life when he was 2,” Roman said “ The first time I saw him, he took a pᴏᴏᴘ on my living room carpet as soon as my partner put him down (it was her canine). We did not get along the first many months. I like tykes, but this bone is a kid. He wanted attention all the time. He wanted to be around you. I had a hard time getting along with a canine This kind of intelligence has such an important personality and insight. I used to fight with him a lot. Until my partner told me to treat him like a little person. He’s veritably smart. Since that day, I made trouble. And so did he. We came closest to musketeers and when my partner and I broke up, she got to keep the apartment just so I could keep Toby. This was when he was 10.”
Roman, who now helps run a medium-size carrier company was an optometrist and would generally leave the house 8-10 hours. “ He knew when I would get home. He’s a sense for it. He’d be in the window and also by the door Before I actually came in, I could hear him whimpering in excitement outdoors. He also would try to jump on me and master my face and was just a pack of pure, full-on excitement.”
Recently, however, Roman had to go through a very ᴘᴀɪɴful situation. Toby, the dog who had been with him for many years, has pᴀssᴇᴅ due he was old, sick. The once happy fellow who waited for him to come home no longer appears anytime soon on his window.
“Where his last three days he was not keeping anything down and was very lethargic. So we all said goodbyes and took him to the vet. This was the most painful decision I had to make in my life so far and it still haunts me 4 months later like it was yesterday.”
When I lost my dog, I carried her body out of the vet’s office in a black plastic bag. She was a German Shepherd, so the bag was pretty big. As I held it in front of me and slowly made my way through the hall, people who were waiting for their appointments lowered their heads, pulling their pets closer to themselves. We try to forget the inevitable, and it’s probably a good thing. But no matter how we feel about it, eventually, the day comes and it’s time to say our goodbyes. They’re never easy. I remember digging a hole in a dark forest, it was winter and the ground was hard, I was barely scratching it. I remember carefully lowering a box in the hole and my hands clinging to it, refusing to let go. But I had to. And so did Roman from Chicago.
