Woody Options

[Steve K.]

I was here ten years ago for my Beauregard. Now I am here for my Woody. Woody was a dog that nobody wanted so me and the wife took him in. He was a handful at first and he made us wonder if we made the right decision but he turned out to be a wonderful dog. He was a retriever mix and a beautiful red color.

Well, on Sunday 09/21/08, I went out for the day and the wife took the dogs (we have another shelter dog) for a walk. They were both on a leash but Woody pulled away from my wife and ran into the street. He was hit by a car and the wife got animal control to take him to the emergency clinic where the vet said it didn't look good. The wife made the decision to let Woody go and when I got home, my heart was broken. My poor wife had to watch him get hit by the car and then make the decision to let him go. We are both heartbroken. I can't sleep, I can't eat, and all I do is cry at the drop of a hat. Our other dog (Smokey Joe) is 9 years old but Woody was only four. I expected him to be around for many years. Why did God take our dog from us? I don't think that we are bad people. We took in both dogs and two stray cats. We love our animals like children. Why was he taken from us?

[Steve K.]

Woody's ashes stayed in the bedroom last night on my chest of drawers. He will remain there for a while until we get one of his pictures framed and then we will place the photo next to his ashes in a prominent place in our living room. Woody loved to carry around a squeaky hamburger dog toy. He would carry one around for several weeks and then he would chew it up. Once he chewed it, we would get him another one or two or three. One time he chewed the bottom out of one and it is almost a perfect circle except for the chewed edges. I carry it in my pocket every day and hold onto it several times a day. I have seen posts from some members that mention a sign from their recently departed pet. Does anyone have any experience with this? The day that we had to put Woody down, we took Smokey for a walk across the street. There was a certain location that had a lot of undergrowth where I expect rabbits may hide. Almost every time we got to that spot, Woody (when he was alive) would literally hop up into the air and vault over the undergrowth and run around in the brush looking for the rabbits. Well, as I was saying, we took Smokey for his walk that sad day and when we got to that exact spot Smokey leaped into the air like Woody used to and ran around in the brush looking for the rabbits. He never did it before and he hasn't done is since. He's almost 10 years old and he doesn't do much jumping (if any) anymore. My wife said that it was a sign from Woody and that he was saying goodbye. If it was a sign from Woody I would like to think that he was telling us that he is okay. What do all of you think?