Roof

Rufus was found by my friends Kim & Charles in 2000, wandering around in Bellevue on the North Side of Richmond.  He was so covered in fleas and ticks that when they put Frontline on him, his face turned black from all the fleeing bugs.  When they took him to the vet, he was diagnosed with heartworms and every intestinal parasite the vet had seen.  The vet actually said, "I have never seen this many parasites in a  living animal before."  But Kim & Charles were getting married and going on their honeymoon, and they didn't have the resources to keep him, so they asked me if I'd foster him and take him to the AARF adoption stands on Sundays.  So I did that.  He had never seen stairs before, so I had to teach him how to walk up and down my apartment stairs to get in and out of the house.  He immediately walked off a leash and knew how to sit and shake.  He never barked, begged or got up in anybody's grill about anything.   He was instantly the best dog I'd ever known, and he did it all on his own.  He didn't get adopted at the adoption stands, because he was older---the vet said between 5 & 8 years old.  Nobody wanted an older dog.  But he fit so well into my lifestyle that I just finally adopted him and that arrangement worked great for both of us. 

That was 8 years ago.  We've had a million adventures, a ton of car rides, camping trips, dog park visits, walks with friends, thousands of bowls of kibble, hundreds of chewey treats, and an immeasurable amount of love.  Everybody who meets Rufus loves him instantly.  He is just a really fantastic dog. 

Over the last 8 years, he has slowly gotten more arthritic.  He got cataracts and lost his sight, and then his hearing started to fail.  He slowed down more and more, and finally one day about 2 years ago on a walk, he had a series of strokes, and we had to stop going on long walks.  Within the last year, he stopped letting me trim his nails---he would YALP any time I got near him with nail clippers, even though I'd only nipped him once, many years ago.  So between his arthritis and his dracula nails, he has a hard time getting up to a standing position on hardwood floors.  And within the last few months, he has stopped being able to negotiate the front steps, four concrete steps up to the door.  More recently, he is having trouble with the back steps, only 2 steps up.  And then he started to have accidents in the house, which he's never done.   He had more and more trouble getting into the car, until finally we would have to pick him up and put him in the back seat.  And then two weeks ago, he couldn't get out of the car, he fell out and smashed his face on the curb and bit his tongue.  That was the end of the car rides. 

It's been hard watching my best friend lose the ability to get around.  He's got a growth on his side that started off the size of an egg, and it's now about twice the size of a softball.  Like a cereal bowl growing under his fur.  The vet said he was too old to biopsy it, and anyway, what are we going to do, chemo? she joked.  No, she's right, no chemo.  He started getting skin growths everywhere.  One on his eyelid growing in towards his eye that is about the size of my pinkie nail, that constantly grows and bleeds and causes an infection.  We have to clean his eye constantly, wiping the scabs out of his fur and keeping the infection down.  The cataract in that eye has gotten much worse because of the constant irritation, I think.  He's got another bleeding growth on his head, and a sore on his back just above his tail that bleeds and heals, bleeds and heals. 

So last week I asked my mom to get her neighbor with the backhoe to dig us a spot at the farm, and I made an appointment with the vet for Monday morning at 9:15.  I'm not sure you can ever be "ready" for losing a friend like this, even when it's so obvious that they are suffering and having a hard time.  But I think about how close he was to death when my friends found him, 8 years ago, and how much Roof and I have been through together... He's a great dog.  He's a once-in-a-lifetime dog, a legendary dog.  We'll tell stories about him until we die.  He's that kind of dog.  That good.  That smart.  That funny.

I love you, Roof.  You're my best buddy.  I hope I did right by you. 

Dawg Dinnuh

GIMME A PORKCHOP LADY!

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old as hell. drunk.

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Rufus:  ? -- Nov. 24, 2008

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