About 3 years ago I wanted to get a dog. I didnt want any ol dog I wanted a Boston Terrier. My wife hated the idea. She didnt like the way they looked and she had read they had a lot of health problems,especially with their eyes. At the time we had close to 0 dollars at any given time. I was interning and her job just didnt pay much. This tabled the idea of getting a pure Boston Terrier.
It was tabled until my wife came across a Boston Terrier Rescue group on Facebook. They had a bunch of Bostons and were located in the Houston area. We saw they were going to be at an event about 10 minutes from our apartment. My wife saw one she liked and I did too. We asked if he would be at the event and come to find out he was. Next thing we knew we had a super skinny dog with a ton of dandruff. We took Stevie home and never looked back.
Since the moment we got him we knew he was “special”. His back legs never quite worked right. He had a patch of hair missing from his back. He couldnt jump up and down the couch right. He ate funny. I didnt care though because he was a well behaved dog. He was the Boston I wanted and was the Boston I got.
The great irony of Stevie was the fact I wanted the Boston and my wife didnt yet my wife was his absolute favorite. Wherever she went Stevie was right behind her. I had to remind him all the time that I actually wanted him and she didnt. He didnt care. His love for my wife became painfully obvious when she would go out of town. On the second day she would be out of town he would just start wondering around the house looking for her at all times of the night. On the third day he would begin to take his frustrations out on me. He would go outside to use the bathroom. I would let him back in and he would immediately use the bathroom on the floor. One time he took it so far that he pooped on my foot at the backdoor.
About 6 months ago we started noticing he was being even more clumsy than usual. He was falling down the stair in the back yard. He was being a little more lethargic than usual as well. One night we were getting ready for bed when my wife noticed he had a HUGE gash on his leg. He didnt seem to be in pain but it was deep. He cleaned it up but knew we still needed to get him to the vet. We took him to the vet to get the gash taken care of but also to talk about his health problems. After doing the surgery the vet told us the dog we thought was 7 was “No younger than 10”. She also confirmed his problems were neurological. That obviously wasnt good but the doc told us we would know when it was time.
About 5 months later we had the discussion that no dog owner wants to have. We could see he had gotten worse and he wasnt getting better. His bad days were out numbering the good days. He seemed miserable. He wasnt eating,playing,or doing anything else he liked to do. We had to make the decision to put Stevie down. It was one of the hardest things ive had to do.
My wife and I decided to give him one last party. On his last night we took him to the park down the street. After that we took a ride to go grab him a bunch of treats. We stopped and got him a doggie cupcake. After the cupcake we went to In-N-Out and got him a doggie burger. We headed home and prepared his meal. Once he got to the food he channeled my wife and totally ate his cupcake first. The next day at work was rough as you might expect. My wife and I met at the house. We grabbed Stevie and a bag of Goldfish crackers. He would eat Goldfish all the time so we wanted to make sure he felt safe and comfortable at the vet. The last thing we wanted was for him to be scared the whole time. The vet came in and explained everything to us. An hour later we walked out with one less family member.
That picture was taken right before the vet came in. It is so perfectly Stevie. Got some snacks and couldnt quite finish it.He was a good and sweet dog. I couldnt have asked for a better dog. He was always there for a laugh and always willing to show some love to anyone. He was great around kids and he never gave us any trouble. I hope he is somewhere running around doing Stevie things. It still feels weird to only make one food bowl. Ill get used to it at some point but right now it still feels weird.
The Quest for Scratch 