Puppy Love

I wanted to write a small bit about my dog Garth. My first husband and I got Garth for Christmas in 1993. He was only a few weeks old, and we found him through a classified ad, "Free to a Good Home". He was just a mutt, a Lab mix more than likely, but it was a love at first sight sort of feeling when we met him. We named him Garth because my ex's name is Wayne and I'm Cassandra. Anyone who has seen the Wayne's World movies will get that joke. Garth was the center of my world. I have a lot of print photos of him, but only one or two digital pics, as back then I didn't have a digital camera. He was a wonderful dog, and I was like a proud mom who thought her kid was the cutest, smartest, most talented one on the block. He went everywhere I did, slept beside me in bed. When he was about nine or ten, he developed prostate cancer (my ex refused to neuter him) which we had treated and felt hopeful about. A year later it returned, with a vengeance as they say. It was a difficult time, this was early in 2004, and my ex and I had already separated and I, frankly, did not want to even look at my ex's face back then (still don't!!). But Garth still bound us. It didn't last long, and after doing everything we could for him, even taking him up to North Carolina State's vet school, we had to put him to sleep in the summer of 2004. After that, I decided I could never ever have another dog. Garth was one in TEN million, and I knew then and still know now that I will never be able to find another dog quite as special as he was. So, now I am the crazy cat lady instead.....