I can’t stop crying. We had to have our beautiful boy put down today. The short and skinny is that he was getting more aggressive towards males, and other dogs. Then last week he deliberately climbed into our neighbors yard. Our neighbors whom have two French Mastiffs. Otis was only 36kg compared to two dogs that I’d hazard were around 50kg each. You may remember he fell into their yard once last year. They only had the one dog at the time and he still got a hiding from that. That however was an accident and last week’s one was intentional. We know because he had to rip down a lot of wire mesh and other building materials to get to them. He also had to squeeze through a bunch of spiky trees. In short, he was damn determined to do it.
We patched him up and Glenn rebuilt the section of fence and added to it. He only stopped limping on Saturday. Then Glenn rang me at work today to say an animal ranger had found him and he needed urgent medical attention. The ranger also said he was too aggressive for her to get close. So we made the heart breaking, but necessary decision to have him put to sleep. We couldn’t protect him from himself any more, and we couldn’t risk anyone else getting hurt.
It just hurts so much. Otherwise, he was the perfect dog. Always wanting cuddles and following me everywhere for more cuddles. Snuggling next to you at any opportunity. He loved popping balloons and shredding the ends of toilets rolls. He still did his puppy run when you got home and his excited twirl before you fed him. He loved going up the bush and pretending he was a tough bush dog (even though he cried when he got lost). He adored our niece and nephew, and any kids for that matter, and I’ll never forget the time they camped out in our lounge. Both dogs took turns watching over the kids (I got up to check on them at 2am ;p). He did the worst farts – period – and had the hardest head known (made me see stars on more than one occasion). His whip like tail drew tears when it caught you across the nose and he never, ever, stopped wagging it. Even when we took him to the vet that last, awful time.
I wish so much that we hadn’t had to do it. But part of me knew last week when he did it, that this was a possible outcome. His sister is lying beside me, silent for once. We know she knows. I can only be so grateful we had such a fantastic 7+ years with him. He was such a beautiful, cheerful and happy dog. I’m gonna miss him so much.
