Goodbye, Rex

As you may recall, we sent Rex to live with another cop Shaun knows. Because of a biting incident with one of the neighbor girls, we felt it was best for him to go live in a place that would be safer for a dog like him. Although he had never done anything to one of us, nor do we think he would, we were very concerned about the children in the neighborhood, because you just can't control what they do. This friend of Shaun's has a farm with a lot of acres, horses, cats, and other dogs. We hoped it would be a place where Rex would be happy. By all accounts, he was doing well there. He had been "put in his place" by a feisty horse and was beat up by the cats. We were very amused by the stories. We hoped to eventually get out to visit him in his new digs.

Sadly, that day will not come. Last night, Shaun received the awful news that Rex has died. One of the hardest things for me is that we do not know why. They just went out and found him lying peacefully, apparently with his paws crossed, as he often did when he was laying down. I used to say he was being proper ;) There are a number of possibilities as to why this happened. Shaun thinks it's possible he was stung by something. He liked to try to catch bugs in the air. His real age was unknown and larger dogs do not live as long. I guess it's possible he had cancer and we just didn't know it. That happened to my brother's golden retriever. I don't recall how old he was, but not old, and they had gone on vacation, leaving him with my sister. All of a sudden, he became sick, and though she rushed him to the vet, there was nothing they could do. He had cancer, and they had no idea. Even though Rex went to the vet right before he went to his new home, it's not something they would have looked for if it wasn't suspected. Maybe it explains why he was constantly marking all over the house and why he snapped at the neighbor girl. Maybe not, we will never know.

I know Shaun is deeply saddened by the loss of his dog. Even though we sent him to a new home, he was still considered Shaun's dog. Our dog, too. I hope he knows I loved Rex, too. I know I got mad at him for peeing and marking in the house, but I still loved him. And he hasn't seen my tears, but I've cried them in private because I didn't think it would help him to see it. I feel bad because if this was something that was going to happen anyway and we had known, we could have just kept him so that Shaun could say goodbye. That has to be one of the hardest things for him, that he didn't get to tell his partner goodbye. To that extent, I feel guilty about letting him go, even though there is no way I could have known, and even though I know that we probably wouldn't have been able to be there when it inevitably happened down the road. At the same time, I guess it is a bit of relief that the kids didn't have to see it.

I hope Rex was happy in his last weeks on the farm, and I hope he went peacefully and wasn't in pain. I hope he knew his master loved him, that we all did. I want to share my very favorite picture of Rex:


Rest in peace, Rex. Thank you for protecting my husband and being part of our family.