Your Pet Loss Stories

'Tiger Dog'

I lost all the early years of my adolescence and adulthood three weeks ago to bone cancer. He had suffered minor arthritis for years and was finally feeling like his old self with new medication and supplements - he (being a greyhound) wanted to run, slipped on a turn, and shattered his back leg.

I knew they were extremely susceptible to bone cancer but I wouldn't believe it... no one really did (no outward signs) until the CT scan showed it eating his bone from the inside. Seeded in his lungs. Amputation, chemo, three heavy-duty pain meds. 6 months.

I couldn't put him through it...I still feel guilt every single day. I held his head when he left and he cried with me like he always did. For 8 years he was glued to my hip - high school, college, jobs, roommates, bad relationships, good relationships, betrayals, he was my ring bearer at my wedding. People don't recognize me without him. I don't recognize me.

He gave me confidence and reason. He was as temperamental as I was and made me step back and laugh at our absurdity. I cried in his fur and he let me yell for no reason. I had panic attacks -he had them with me. If I stopped eating, he stopped eating. If I was being too sharp with him, he snapped at me. He was a dramatic prince who demanded my attention, for me to attend to him above all others. He ignored me if I wronged him only to run shivering to my lap when he heard thunder.

I have his ashes in a carefully chosen urn. He is tattooed running with his name around my wrist. I have a cremation necklace with his ashes inside. It doesn't replace him.

He didn't believe in the Rainbow Bridge, but I hope his run on earth was... how it should have been. Nothing will ever be like the force of that one dog again. He saw me grow up and learn - more than anyone. He changed with me when I needed him to. He was my little prince.