Wimpy and walking

I was an early subscriber to the intelligence of animals.  When I was very young, I am not sure what age, maybe 7, our family adopted a dachsund that we named Wimpy. I am not sure that was a fair name for him, because he was anything but. When he caught scent of squirrel or other game, he was determined to track it down and bring it home.

Once, a neighbor found him on the highway a couple of miles from our home, as he was following the trail my brother had left hiking out of town.  And if we put him out, and a female was in heat, he was sure to be in the pack.

As he and I grew older, he liked his walk around the neighborhood block. I remember some nights when he was very restless, and cried incessantly. I remember telling my mother he wanted his walk. She was hesitant to allow this as it was perhaps 9:30 or 10 PM, but she decided, after a while, he would settle down with such a walk, and I was allowed to do so. 

Wimpy slept on the sofa. If we had company who stayed after his 9:30 or 10 PM bed time, he would be very restless and whine and complain. 

Wimpy died in the winter of my senior year at high school.  I was outside shoveling snow, and he was with me, but he wanted to go inside. He would not go inside without me,  as he was a stubborn old cuss. He suffered a stroke later that same week. I always have blamed myself that if I had gone inside, Wimpy might have lived longer . But God was  watching out for us. In a few months, I was would be going off to college, and what would have happended to his soul, then, if I had left him.

The veterinarian did not want me present when they euthanized him. A few years later, he apologized, saying he understood that would have been more healing for me.  My mother did not understand my grief, and almost mocked me, but my father was a saint, and helped me make a coffin for him, and bury him behind our house.  To this day, this recounting evokes emotions so deep I can not describe.  I am accepting of the loss of this good friend but my heart breaks over it still.

It is for this reason that I can not read or view stories about faithful animal friends, especially canines without extreme emotional distress.