For the love of Tux

How do you say good-bye to someone you have loved for 13 years? I am rarely at a loss for words when writing, but in this moment I can't find the words.

We adopted Tux almost 13 years ago. At the time, we only had one dog - our sweet Jack. Jack had been with us for 4 years. We decided it was time to get Jack a companion. We turned to petfinder.com and looked for a dog similar in age and size to Jack. We saw Tux, and fell in love. My husband went to the animal shelter to meet him. He called me later to say that this was the dog. He said that when he was led to the cage, Tux was sitting up on his haunches and waving his front paws as if it say, "hey, look at me."

So, we played hooky the next day and we all went to the shelter to meet him. When I say we all went, I mean it. We took our son and Jack along with us. They brought Tux to the lobby to meet us, and we all agreed that Tux needed to come home with us.

I've often wondered what his life was like before. What led him to be at an animal shelter? Was he loved before us? Actually, I think I can answer my second question. From day 1 (and still to this day), Tux shrinks back when we go to pet him. That tells me that he was not loved.

We have tried to make up for that. We have loved our Tux. Even though he has never been housebroken and even though he is a runner (I've lost count of how many times we've had to chase after him after he slipped out the front door), we have loved him.

Tux has always been fairly low maintenance. Give him a comfy bed, a spot on the sofa, or a sunny patch of grass and he's happy. Now that he is blind, deaf, toothless, and having seizures, he has still remained fairly low maintenance. Having to buy him special food seems like a small price to pay for the love he brought to our home.

Tux has been a constant in our lives for 13 years. He has outlived Jack, Jake, Annie, Zoe Marie, Hamlet, Intrepid, Tony, and Sal. He came into our lives when my son was 9. He settled in and became part of Jonathan's bed buddies - sleeping on his bed every night along with Jack and Jake.

On Saturday, March 25, I have the honor of taking Tux on his last car ride. Our wonderful vet will be helping him cross the Rainbow Bridge. I will miss you, my sweet Tux, Tuckeeto, Tuxie Poo, Tuckerino. We didn't rescue you, you rescued us. Godspeed, my sweet little man. I will love and miss you always.