About 8 years ago, after being 'dogless' for a number of years, I made a stop at the New Milford, CT humane society. I'd been looking for a golden retriever. In the first kennel I came to I saw an enormous pure black dog looking at me. I stopped to look at him and I stuck my fingers through the chain-link. The dog walked over to me and leaned against my fingers. It was instaneous, mutual love between us. After a few more visits 'Archie' came home with me. As it turns out, Archie was a Golden/Newfie mix who'd either been abandoned by his first family or who'd wandered away and ended up at the pound.
After having border collies, cockers, shi tzus, and a miniature schnauzer, I have to say that Archie topped them all - literally. He was always happy and always broken hearted when I had to leave him home. He soon became our best friend - my son's and mine.
He shed to 'beat the band' leaving hair blowing across the kitchen floor like tumbleweeds. He was scared of the wind which seemed odd since it seemed that he was large enough to have scared the wind instead. My niece is wheelchair-bound with cerebral palsey and a host of other difficulties. Archie never complained when she pulled his long, black fur. He was gentle to a fault with everyone. I do have to say, though, that there were a few dogs that he didn't get along with. He got along very well with our corgi and the cat.
A couple of years ago Archie developed a lump on his side which turned out to be a cancerous mast cell tumor. It was removed and soon he was back to 'his old self'. The vet told me that it was a case of not 'if' but 'when' his cancer would return.
Over the past couple of months Archie, now with a lot of gray hair (like me)began to slow down a bit. He could still pull my shoulder out of joint on our walks but, after a 1/2 a mile or so, he'd let up a bit. A week ago he developed an intermittent bloody nose along with what seemed to be a slight weakness in his hind legs. I took him in to see the vet and, along with blood tests, he was given a general physical. The test results showed that he had an infection of some sort so he was put on antibiotics.Â
He had his first dose with his dinner this past Tuesday. Around 10 o'clock I took him out to take care of business and he lay down in the driveway. It took some coaxing to get him back in the house where, when I did get him in, he quickly lay down on the cellar floor. He seemed to be exhausted. I sat with him until nearly midnight and left him and went to bed. Around 4:00AM I returned to the cellar and Archie looked up at me but he seemed to have lost his spark. I went back up stairs to make a cup of coffee. When I returned 5 minutes later poor old Archie was dead. My wife was traveling on business and the kids are off in college and now, with Archie gone, I was truly alone. I sat with him on the floor for the longest time and, as the sun began to come up I brought him out to the field out back, dug his grave and buried him. He was truly the most loving, trusting friend that I've ever had. After a week the tears still flow freely, catching me off guard.Â
I'd much prefer to have the slobber on my pant legs and the hair drifting across the floor and his chin resting on the dinner table as he inquired, "what's for dinner?"
The vet speculated that he'd suffered a heart attack and there wasn't much that could be done for him in the end. We lucky to have had this gentle giant as a huge part of our life for the 8 years that we had him. (We figure that he was 3 - 4 years old when we got him and, according to the vet, 11 - 12 years old was pretty old for a large breed.)
He was the most marvelous dog that ever crossed our threshold. I would advise anyone with thoughts of owning a newfie, newfie/mix that they could never do better.
We'll always miss him
(moved by a mod so that archie can have his own thread)
