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Tiger
As the dawn of a new day brightens the sky, I am awoken from a restless night, with the sun shining on my face from the window in my bed room. All I see is darkness, all around me, not wanting to face the day, knowing that this morning will be the last breakfast that my dear dog Tiger will ever have, for this is the day that she is to be put to sleep. Tiger came into our lives not so long ago. She was at our local animal shelter when I found her she was the sweetest dog there. She had such sadness in her eyes that showed a glimmer of brightness in them when I walked up to her cage, I knew at that moment that she was going to come home with me so I could remove the sadness and pain from her big brown eyes. She was the best companion, she would let our little boy ride on her back with never a complaint, she was only 2 years old when she came home to live but her eyes told a different story she has lived a life time of pain and suffering. Her new life consisted of swimming in the creek , playing with the other animals and a little boy who loved her with all his heart. As the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months the pain and sadness slipped away from her eyes and was replaced with a bright shining sparkle that coursed threw her body ending with a wagging of her tail that never stopped until a dark day came to visit us, we were working out in the pasture when Tiger our sweet dog got her first taste of blood, while others were laughing I was crying knowing full well what can happen to a dog when they make their first kill. As the months past with no further episodes I began to relax thinking that she was to good to let her primal instincts take over. I agreed to dog sit my brother in laws dog Bear, while he was moving, I thought that it would be fun for Tiger to have a play mate, they got along so good! It was fun to watch her teach Bear how to swim and to play other doggie games, a few months later she blessed our happy house hold with the birth of 11 puppies! It was one of the happiest day of our lives, she was such a good mommy to them, she was loosing weight fast but she never did leave the puppies side I had to bring her food so she could keep up her strength to feed all of them, she was winning she was starting to gain weight again and looking good, all the puppies were growing so fast, when the puppies were 4 weeks old I gave them a taste of canned dog food to give Tiger a break and let her run around for a few minutes with out the worry of her puppies. That was when she killed for the second time, she showed no remorse for what she did, her primal instincts were showing up in her mannerism. That was a dark day in all of our lives, we were lucky, that she only was killing our animals, so we were able to give her the benefit of the doubt and let the puppies grow a bit more, the 2 weeks after that she escaped out of her yard to kill again, we knew at that time she was not going to stop and we feared for the safety of our son and other livestock that lived near by. As I fed her breakfast I was crying she came up to me and pushed up against me, trying in her own way to comfort me, little did she know that she was going for her last truck ride, all the way to the vets she sat next to me, as I looked over to her she sat so tall and proud she with the gleam in her eye she had no idea. At the vets office she was wanting to play with the other dogs there, when her name was called that is when I saw the terror in her eyes she knew that something was not right when Doc. Dan came into the room with tears in his eyes holding a injection. They made her lay on the table and inserted the needle into her paw, she looked up at me with all the love and tenderness in her eyes then the light went out and my dear friend was gone. Dan gently took off Tigers collar and handed it to me, he was crying as hard as I was for he knew what a special dog that Tiger was. Today I put tiger to rest with all the puppies watching I laid Tiger in her final resting place, she now sleeps under the apple trees with roses next to her, she has her favorite view watching the drive way protecting us even in her death she will always keep us safe. Please take care of your own, if your favorite dog shows any signs of hurting or killing other animals please do as I did, it is the hardest decision their is but it is the right one. they are not happy when they get the taste of the thrill of the hunt. Tazzy |
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