We will miss you Pokey!
After almost fourteen years of loyalty, gentleness, and companionship, our dog Pokey was put to sleep today.
Although large breed dogs rarely live longer than twelve years, we were blessed to have Pokey with us for all this time. During the last several months, a cancer had spread throughout her body and as of this morning, she was not even able to stand on her own.
It’s difficult to describe the relationship between a good dog and the family that loves her so much. Holidays, birthdays, camping trips, Pokey was a part of all of them. Of the many characteristics that made Pokey unique, three things stand out the most to me:
- Pokey not only loved to swim but she especially loved to make splashes with her paw and then bite at the splashes.
- Every time someone got ice from the freezer, Pokey would come running to get a piece. I have never known a dog to love ice so much.
- Pokey would spend hours with Lauren trying to catch the bubbles she would blow.
The following is an excerpt from a speech delivered by US Senator George Graham Vest in 1855. I thought it fitting to include here.
“The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog. A man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master’s side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer. He will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounters with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings, and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens.
If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes his master in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad, but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death.”
Pokey was a good dog!
