And So It Was...

Well, I guess it finally happened. I let my dog live un-tethered as it were. My wife always advised against it. She was right, clearly I was wrong. Now I have to somehow explain to my 4-year-old that Thumper (her “good boy”) isn’t coming home. She knows, but she really doesn’t know why.

I’ll never forget how when you would tell him to sit, he would get in a seat, how he won and lost the ugly dog contest, how he pranced around like a pony, basically how he was our dog. I’m not really one to pine over my dog, but you have to admit, he was unique… and incredibly stupid. I guess that is why I am so upset. I thought of how it is the teenager’s fault, how it is my fault, how it is the stupid dog’s fault, or even the alligator’s fault. But no matter, it won’t bring him back.

I think about how violently he must have gone. How cruel sipping water out of the pond, only to be gobbled up by a waiting alligator. That’s what I think happened, but I really don’t know... So I found Thumper’s body in the pond. I also found the alligator that killed him. I really don’t know what possessed me, but I was bound and determined to get the body back out of the water.

Why? I don’t know. But I was damned if I was going to let that alligator have the rest of my dog. So I got some rope, tied some weights together and fished his body out of the water. The smell would knock you over, but I pressed on. I took his body back to my house, and I started digging a hole. My teenager helped, while crying and telling me how sorry she was.

It was just too gruesome to take a picture of him. Basically his back end was gone, and there were teeth marks all over his body. Really it was bad. So now I’m forced to wonder, what have we learned from all of this?

• Keep your dogs on a leash at all times

• Respect Mother Nature

• Love your pets, because you just never know when their time is up

Finally here some of his best pictures and movies. I wish I had more but I'm glad to get this.

Here we see the "Good Boy" getting acquainted with the Songbird.

Here he is with the teenager, (she wasn't a teenager then though)

Just chillin' with his butt in the air.

Trying to be My Little Pony, We told him to sit, you see where he sat right?

Xena (the schnauzer) and Thumper chase each other around.

Laying out, working on the tan.

Looking regal. Hurry take a picture.

This is one of my favorites, he is really yawning, but it does look like he is laughing. Maybe he is talking from beyond the grave... Never stop laughing.