Yesterday was a very hard day. Oscar, my beloved friend, crossed over the rainbow bridge yesterday afternoon. He wasn't just a dog. He was a huge personality in a very small body. As I sit here this evening, I am trying to remember all the wonderful memories...so that is what I am going to share. There are so many...
It all started with my daughter bringing home this tiny ball of fur in December 2008...then he went to live with Curtis for a while...then he came to stay with me. It started off as dog sitting while Curt visited his grandmother in Kentucky and then we decided he would make his home with me where he has been until today.
He's been a cornbread thief...running under the sofa with said cornbread. He helped himself to my granddaughter Olivia's chocolate sundae. He swiped a bag of chocolate chips off the dining room table and left a mess all over my ivory carpet.
There was the time a truckload of kids drove by honking and hollering and I look up to see Oscar humping the cat across the front yard. So many times he chased the neighbor's mastiffs down the driveway and back home. Which caused him to be dubbed the 55 pound dog in the 5 pound body. I had to watch him closely because he'd even chase coyotes and we all knew that wouldn't end well.
One weekend while I was gone to the races in Bristol, someone accidentally left the door unlatched and he got out. I remember walking up and down the road in the rain at 2 am crying and calling for him. On advice, I put my clothes on the back steps and sure enough...the next morning there he was soaking wet in the rain. He was pissed at me for a couple days...would sit by me on the sofa with his back to me for leaving him so long. It was only three days.
At Thanksgiving one year, we went to Kentucky and took Oscar with us. As we were cleaning up the dishes and loading the dishwasher I heard Betty say "What are you doing, Oscar?" and there he was...walking down the middle of the table clearing the plates for us.
He loved Betty...he loved her so much he would sneak away and walk down to her house. I'd get a call at work that she had a visitor and I'd stop and pick him up on the way home. The poor contractor called me one afternoon this summer and said "your little dog gave me the slip...I've been looking for him for an hour..." I just chuckled and told him to go down to the house with the cedar siding and that's where he would be...with Betty.
It's some comfort to me knowing that Oscar is now with Curtis and Betty once again. That he can run and jump and bark and maybe Curtis is tossing his toys for him up there in the clouds of heaven.
I knew his health was declining when he quit being able to jump on the bed by himself. I chalked it up to his old pelvis injury he got when he decided to tangle with one of the red bones a few summers back. I didn't want to admit he was old. Then he quit jumping up on the dining room table when I'd pull in the driveway. When I got home from Salem on Sunday, he didn't even wag his tail. Monday night, knowing it was my last night with him, I put him up in the recliner and just held him. Then I carried him to bed and held him close because I knew he wouldn't be there the next night.
Oscar even inspired a short story several years ago...me and Curtis laughed when I wrote it...one of these days...I'll share it. But not today...