sherriknits

Ok, I was the one who always said I just tolerated him. I am finding different this week.

We had to have our dog, Wiley, put to sleep today. He would have been 11 on New Years. He was a good dog and the pain of losing him is really evident in our family today. Rhianna brought him home and she loved him and took good care of him. When she moved out, he kind of became Ben’s dog. He slept with Ben every night, much to my dismay. We were never surprised to hear a big thunk on the floor when Wiley fell out of bed. One of Tyler’s favorite things to do was to come home and check the couches for a warm spot and an obvious indentation where he had been sleeping when we weren’t home. We rarely ever caught him at it, but he always looked guilty as ever.

I asked Kenny not to put Junior Mints in my stocking this year. The last several years (you’d think I’d learn), when we were gone, Wiley would eat them, box and all. One year, Kenny replaced them twice and I never did get to eat any. Some of the times, they were put up in a place you’d never think he could get them. And yes, he had seizures a few times from getting in to my chocolate~scared the living daylights out of us. He was resourceful and intent on getting it, though. I even saw Kenny give him CPR once.

We noticed this week that he was having problems and knew he needed to be seen. We heard the inevitable. After many, many tears yesterday and a bad night last night, we knew it was time. The kids came to say good-bye. We all wept. One by one, we said our final goodbyes and left the house. Kenny couldn’t bring himself to go back to work so he spent the day doing things he’s loved doing with him. They went for a ride and they went to a park. I wish they would have had one more time at the beach, but I don’t think Wiley could have done it. Kenny said Wiley had a little bit of a burst of energy while they spent their time together but he said it was rough afterwards.

He brought Tyler to me at my shop so he could take Wiley in. Tyler and I ended up coming home and tried to get some things out of here before Kenny came home. You can only imagine his heartbreak when he called to tell me he was on his way home and what they did today.

We left early on our date and took Tyler. I texted the kids to say we were on our way out of town, the only way I could tell them it was over. Within seconds, I got 3 texts in return….wanting to know if we were ok. Ben and I texted our whole drive to Olympia. He really touched me. He said how much he was going to miss Wiley and that Wiley would be the dog all future dogs he may have would be compared to. He teased me and said they all know he loved me a lot. He reminded me he loved me ever since I saved him from the starlings…so much he wanted to see me so bad he’d climb on the neighbor’s roof.

When he was somewhat of a puppy we had a very bad year with starlings, they sat on the neighbor’s house. At that time I think we must have fed Wiley on the deck. However, those starlings took to taunting and diving at Wiley and he was terrified. The kids all remember me moving everything inside and watching out for him when he went outside. lol

The roof thing was hilarious. I was sitting and doing bookkeeping on my computer when suddenly in the reflection on the monitor, I see Wiley looking in the window behind me. I slowly turned and lo and behold, he was on our neighbor’s carport roof! How he got up there I don’t think we ever quite understood, it was quite a climb! The embarrassing part was, their were workers on the roof of the house and Wiley got really freaked out and started running the length of the roof, skidding to a stop at the edge. I was so freaked out, I started screaming for poor Ben to come help….which he did time and time again whenever Wiley pulled his shenanigans!

Wiley was the reason Tyler wandered away from home when he was 8. He used to bolt out the door whenever it was left open and one nice day, Tyler accidentally let him out. Within minutes, we all realized he was gone. We spread out over the neighborhood and Kenny got in the car and started driving. He came across so many houses with people working in their yards who said they’d seen him go that way. To this day, it makes no sense to me. Tyler was barefoot and obviously should not have been out alone. Wiley was ahead and Tyler was on the run. I was talking to Kenny on the cell phone and asked if we should call the police. Kenny said he just saw a policeman and circled the block to flag him down. He did and when he hollered and asked if he’d seen a boy and a dog, the policeman turned and said, “Have I seen a boy and a dog?” and Kenny hears this proud little, “Yes!” Kenny yells in to the phone, “He’s got him!” and threw the open phone on the seat as I’m nearly hysterically screaming where, what, how!!! lol After that, we had a period where Tyler took the dog looking for a policman!!!!! Not a fun time. This is when I started knitting again.

As Kenny said today, Wiley never raised his voice at Tyler. He tolerated a lot from him and was always kind. They were buddies.

Tyler doesn’t really understand, this is his first experience with anything like this. When Kenny held him and told him, Tyler looked grief-stricken but he has not said a word. He knows the story of Marley and Me and we are hoping this will help him understand.

All in all, we know it was for the best, but that never makes it easy. I’m going to leave you with a short video I took today. I couldn’t bear to get any more when Ben came in right afterwards and he and Rhianna grieved together.

Thanks for listening~we’re now walking out the future with all the changes that have come our way and this is one more.

Tags: my life