meister

{meister last month}

yesterday afternoon

my mom's dog meister died.

you may know -or maybe not- that i am not so much a dog person.

or a pet person.

(except for my college roommate adriane's cat, who was awesome)

meister was in a lot of pain, physically incapacitated and had aged really, really quickly, 

and it was sad to see him struggling so much.

meister had been a part of the family for a long time; he originally was supposed to be my youngest brother aaron's dog, but because aaron's living situations never allowed, meister always lived at my parent's house, then at my sister's house when my parents were no longer together and my mom couldn't keep him at her rental, and finally, at my mom's once she bought her own place.

although he used to drive me crazy when he was a young and hyper golden retriever,

he was a sweet dog.

in some ways he was a perfect dog for our family-stubborn, social, liked to sneak out (ok, maybe that was just when we kids were in high school), a snacker,
and needing to be within 2 feet of human contact at all times.

hmm. maybe some of the reasons i used to get so exasperated with him were related to the traits we shared.

well, that and that it was a lot of additional work for my mom to take care of him when she always already had a full plate.

this past year especially

i was always reassured that he was napping on the floor at my mom's house,

guarding the house and keeping her safe.

my mom is kind of sad, but relieved that he isn't hurting anymore.

m made my mom a card yesterday, because i told her grandma was probably having a hard day.

she drew four airplanes on the cover of her card:

one was hers, one was her grandma's, one was our neighbor boy freddy's,

and the biggest, purple one was for meister.