Good Boys

The Puppy

It was the second day after the Danes euthanasia. It didn't start great, but it didn't start as bad as it had ended. The morning started with my partner taking both puppies out to potty. They were two brothers who were almost never apart besides their first month in each of our homes. The brown puppy was mine and the black puppy is his. We stayed in the house playing video games and messing around with the dogs until nine thirty hit. I'm pretty sure we woke up that day around five thirty in the morning. Once nine o'clock hit I suggested taking our pups on the run we tend to take them on. It's dangerous to do, but nothing bad ever happened before so I didn't expect what happened to happen. Our runs, and once you hear this you can give a guess on what happened, but our runs usually happened with us stopping on a dirt road that nobody else drove on and letting the dogs out of the truck. Usually they take the first few minutes to potty, so we would wait. Then we would start driving and call them so they would chase the truck.

You probably already guessed what happened to my pup that day, but if you guessed a second car, I can guarantee you are wrong. I sat in the passenger seat because I'm not allowed to drive from my previous car accident months before and my boyfriend sat in the driver seat because he can legally drive. When we let the dogs out, they went to their usual spot to potty while I got back in the truck. My boyfriend says it's not my fault, probably because he thinks it's his fault for not hitting the breaks in time, but the breaks have to be pushed all the way to the floor to stop the car properly, I plan to fix that even though we replaced everything that should've fixed that. I thought my partner was starting to move the truck so I called the boys before I realized he hadn't started to move the truck. Luckily the boys stayed where they were for a good second or two longer than they usually would, but when we were driving I noticed my small dog getting too close to the front of the truck.

My partner hadn't realized he was driving slow enough for that to happen until it was too late. My puppy was getting too close to the front tire and he has a bad habit of crossing when he does that, so I calmly warned my partner he was getting too close. I said it calmly only because my boyfriend had scolded me for panicking before about it, but my panicking made him hit the breaks and stop the truck quick, which didn't happen this time because I was oddly calm. I don't think I had expected what happened to happen. I believe it only happened because he had slowed down to stop, but not quickly enough. The truck slowing down gave my puppy the room he thought he needed to cross and I watched him disappear behind that tire before looking at the hood of the truck hoping he would make it across. My heart stopped when I both felt and saw my side of the truck go up and then down before hearing my dearest puppy cry in pain. I couldn't breath the entire time I watched my truck rise and fall.

I couldn't breathe until I heard my pup cry in pain, calling for help. My head immediately went out the window screaming my puppy's name as my boyfriend pulled over as quickly as possible. Before the truck even stopped I had my door unlocked and my foot halfway out of the car. I was in complete panic mode as I ran to my dog. My boyfriend saw the blood in my puppy's mouth before I did and he said something which made me freeze for a moment before continuing my run to my puppy. All knowledge I had on injured animals and how they tend to bite when in pain flew out of my head as I immediately reached out towards my puppy. Time slowed down for me in that moment. He was crying out in pain as he opened his mouth and wrapped it around two of my fingers. My thought process was slow, so I didn't pull away until it was already too late. He didn't mean to hurt me, I could tell by the way he held my hand between his teeth. It was a tight grip, but not tight enough to hurt me except that I had dumbly pulled my hand away after he grabbed onto it. Even with that I only ended up with four minor wounds on my hand, but I was scared and I still couldn't think so I did the only thing I could think of, though I hesitated for a good minute. I lightly whacked him on the head knowing he was in pain and he let me go immediately. At the time I was running off pure instinct so I backed away from him and cried out in pain, because it had hurt and I was scared. I remember how he looked at me when my hand was in his mouth. His eyes were begging me not to leave and two seconds after I left his side I immediately went back because my boyfriend was able to touch him without being bit.

The moment I got back to my puppy I gently started to pet him as he started to cough up his own blood. I pushed his puppy brother away not wanting him to see his brother die, my boyfriend ended up putting him into the truck before slamming onto the truck cursing in both pain and anger. He pulled out his phone and called a friend, telling them to bring a gun so my pup wouldn't have to suffer.

During that process I stayed by my puppy talking to him, petting him, even making sure he could still see me. He was scared, so scared that he turned his head back to look up at me, risking choking on his blood more. His eyes showed fear mostly, but I could tell the way he was looking at me that he was begging me to help him. He had no chance, but my thought process was to help him survive, so I made him lay his head to the side so he wouldn't choke as much. Based on my knowledge keeping the head turned to the side makes it harder to choke, but when you are panicking and there is as much blood as there was you have little to no chance. I had every hope he would survive knowing that if the gun had arrived in time I would have to watch a bullet go through my puppy's head to put him out of his misery. I did everything I could to at least make it sound like I was calm so that he would calm down at least a little bit, and when I moved so he could see me while I was talking to him it did help him calm as much as one could while choking to death and in agony. His breathing was fast, he was coughing a lot, and every time he couched a bunch of blood fell out of his mouth over and over again. When he stopped moving the first time I gently laid my head on his side to see if his heart was still beating, but I immediately moved away the moment he started coughing again. That last cough was his last one. The gun hadn't arrived soon enough, and I'm quite glad I didn't have to see a bullet go through his head, but I'm also sad that he had to suffer so much agony.

The truck with the friend who owned the gun arrived two minutes after my puppy stopped moving. When I saw it coming towards me at the speed it was I wished it would hit me so I didn't have to be without my puppy. It didn't, obviously. I looked at the friend and shook my head trying to silently tell her that she was too late. I don't think she heard me the many times I called out saying she didn't need to pull the gun out of the truck. When she got to me and actually looked at me I told her it was too late, that his heart stopped. I gave my puppy one last pet before getting up as the friend got a shirt she never used out of her truck so we could wrap it around my puppy to cover the blood. After wrapping him she gave him to me saying she had a shovel that we could use to bury him, but before she had even got there I had called my dad to see if he would pay for my puppy's cremation because I couldn't. I told her and my partner that I was getting my puppy cremated no matter what as they were suggesting places to bury him after I yelled at them for even suggesting burying him where we hit him, which they didn't but that was how I took it.

We wrapped my puppy in the shirt and I put him in the bed of our truck as the other puppy was in the back seat waiting for us. We ended up taking the other puppy home before going to the same vet I had taken my Dane to two days before where they said they would call me for both dogs when they have both together and I could get a free ink and paper paw print of my puppy, which I accepted. My puppy was in the truck with us the entire ride covered in a towel and the shirt and laying in a plastic box. I held him and the plastic box on my lap the whole ride, not having the heart to allow anybody else to hold him. The vet took my puppy in the back before having me go through the front doors to pay for the private cremation I asked for. I have yet to get both dogs back, but it's also been only three days since I brought in my puppy. I sure miss both dogs, but I know I have to let them go so they could rest.

I hope they are both wreaking havoc wherever they are. Some may say heaven, some may say their souls passed on to another life, some may even say they are in complete and utter darkness in an eternal death-like slumber. You may think whatever you would like, but no matter what I believe my two boys are causing havoc wherever they may be.