Faithful Companion

Today marked the end of another significant chapter in our lives. We made the heart-wrenching decision to put our 8 1/2 year old dog, Cheney, to sleep. Austin got him as a lab/German short-hair mix puppy when he was just a bachelor living alone after college. They walked many, many miles on the streets of Cedar Falls and later Denver. He was a very faithful companion.

Cheney loved to chase and eat sticks, among other things. He ate (and passed) a lot of interesting items including a friend's work glove, all the tile spacers in the bathroom during remodeling, and Emily's crayons. His favorite delicacy, by far though, was Kleenexes--especially used ones. You could never leave one laying around or throw it away in an uncovered wastebasket. He used to make the rounds routinely looking for stray ones. I accidentally left a nearly new box of Kleenexes on the floor once when I had a cold, and when we got home from church the box was almost empty and there weren't very many left on the floor. :op

Cheney also had the biggest, strongest bladder I've ever seen. He could go 12-18 hours between trips outside without any worry about accidents. On a few occasions he went 24 hours after some miscommunication between Austin & me. I never actually timed him, but I'm sure he could pee for a solid 30-45 seconds sometimes. Maybe longer.

Other fond memories include letting Cheney lick out our ice cream bowls; putting Cool Whip on his nose to lick off; Austin literally throwing him off the bed the night we came home from our honeymoon, thus abruptly ending his routine of sleeping on the bed with Austin; Cheney waiting for Austin to spill popcorn on the floor on Sunday nights; the joyful wagging of his tail when you gave him an ear rub; keeping him off the furniture by simply placing a remote or piece of paper on the chair or couch; Cheney howling along with the ambulance sirens as they came and went to the Waverly hospital.

Cheney put up with a lot when Emily came along. We sometimes had to separate them with baby gates when she was younger--mostly for his sake. Emily had lately started pestering him again. My theory is that she is making the transition from parallel play to interactive play. She determined that Lincoln was not capable, and I was generally not available, so Cheney became her default "playmate". Unfortunately, he only had so much patience. He had a fungus that had slowly been eating away at his nose for a couple years. There wasn't much we could do about it because anything you would wrestle on he would just lick off. Occasionally deep, raw fissures would form, and I'm sure it was quite painful. A couple weeks ago I think he was being extra-protective of his nose when he snapped twice at Emily and then at me. Although he just grazed our hands, we couldn't take the risk of something worse happening--especially with Lincoln becoming mobile soon and not knowing any better.

So after an agonizing decision-making process, Austin & I said our goodbyes. It was very sad, but I have felt complete peace about it since praying hard on Sunday night for peace of mind. It's still going to take awhile to get used to the idea of him being gone. I get a little lump in my throat every time I'm reminded of him. However, truth be told, it is going to be a lot more convenient not to have a dog to take care of for awhile. I think it won't be until the kids are much older before we would consider getting another one.

Emily has handled it extremely well so far. She has only casually asked, "Where's Cheney?" and "What's Cheney doing?" But those are questions she asks every day about everyone. After a brief talk about Cheney being old & cranky beforehand, we have just simply said that Cheney had to go away and is not coming back. I don't think she really grasps the concept, but I don't think she really cares. She did not have an emotional attachment to Cheney and viewed him only as a potential playmate and general resident of the house. There is enough stuff going on this week with her birthday and Halloween and grandparents coming to visit that I'm pretty sure through "out of sight, out of mind" she'll quickly forget about. It is a huge blessing not to have to go through a big "death" explanation at this time. It makes our own mourning process much easier.

Cheney Lorenzen

3/1/01 ~ 10/27/09