A Surprise

A little over 18 years ago, I was 3 my brother was 6. We were living in Stockton, CA and my parents decided that we were going to get a cat. my dad took us to pick our new furry friend. We get to the adoption center, and we start looking at cats, my dad letting us 'awe' and stare at each cute furry thing. It was while looking at these furry felines that, I in my 3 years of age turn around and see this lone fluffy black pup. He was being looked at by another family.

I shake my dad's pant leg, "Daddy-Daddy, look at the puppy, can we?" And that was all I had to say, it had gathered the attention of my brother and my dad waved his hand.

"Fine, ok. I guess we're getting a dog." What he meant was, hurry, before they pick him. We cheered and I didn't know it then, but that puppy would be my best friend through over 10 moves, and all the ups and downs our family had.

We approach the kennel he was being held in and he instantly started wagging his tail, looking so much happier. One of the volunteers went up to my dad and asked him if we wanted to get to know him a little, play with him. My dad walked in with me, we gave him a small treat, he licked my face and ran around us in a circle before coming back to us, licking my hand.

My dad laughed, something about my mom not being too happy. He asked my brother and I what we'd name him, offering to let us decide then himself. I could hear my brother spitballing names, say different things; Sneezy -he had just sneezed-, Blacky, and a few others. I looked at the pup, what I thought just made sense to me, tugging on my dad's pant leg once again I looked up at him and said, "Brutikis".

My dad gave me a quizzical look, asking if I was sure. My brother jumped on board the quite unusual name and it was set. Over his long life people would call him Bronchitis, Brutis, it was kind of hard but Brutikis was the name I felt fit him.

He was my baby, and our family friends, as well as my friends, will say the same. I used to sneak him up the stairs and into my room while we lived in Stockton. When we moved, out of state he was my safe place. I remember I had to wait 3 months before my dad could bring him over. Then we moved back and again, it was 2 months without him. He was my best friend for so long that I was in denial when I noticed his black fur greying just under his muzzle and around his lip. He never lost his until his last year, he slowly got more and more lethargic. He would get bloated, and just lay in his bed or next to me.

A month before he passed my mother's friend had 2 dogs she had rescued and ended up giving birth around the same time. Since she had so many puppies we adopted one. She was much smaller than Brutikis and we named her Honey. It was funny, having a Black Labrador/ Chow mix, and a Chihuahua/ Corgi mix. Since she was so much smaller she tended to push his elderly dog buttons but he never minded too much when she climbed over him. I think he knew, that his time coming and he knew I would need help getting through it.

His last few weeks, he was more bloated than I had ever seen and I knew something was very wrong, he hadn't eaten in 2 days. My dad and I rushed him to an emergency vet that was open late and they took him in for X-Rays, but they couldn't see anything. They kept him overnight and the next morning when we picked him up they told us we should bring him to his regular vet. That next morning, my mom, my brother, and I loaded all together into the car and we had to carry him in his bed because he refused to walk.

The vet looked him over, she asked how old he was, and I knew his age would give concern for whether whatever was wrong with him could be fixed or not. He was 16. She brought in a syringe and she asked us to help keep him calm. She felt around his chest cavity where he was bloated and she inserted the syringe. What she pulled out, I knew we weren't gonna have him for long, it was blood but it was dark and congealed. I'm not certain how she figured, but she said it was most likely that he had a tumor or a mass on his spleen and it ruptured leaving all the blood in his chest. She said that the surgery to fix it was upward of $2,500 but due to how old he was there was no guarantee that he would make it.

I sat on the floor, stroking his ear, as she said he was most likely in pain. She took a look at my brother, me then at my mom before she said, "You should consider putting him to sleep, it might be his best option." I started crying instantly as did my brother. My mom held it together as she asked for some time. The vet left the room and she called my dad, he was at work. He answered the phone and he already seemed tense. My mom broke the news to him, and I could hear my dad over the phone. I could hear his voice break, I could hear the subtle cuss leave his lips. He was trying not to cry. He asked if we could bring him home, one last family meal, to say goodbye.

The vet had told us before we left that we could bring him back the next day, but that we couldn't be with him in the room to say goodbye. It would be an extra charge for his ashes, to stand in the room. We would have to say goodbye in the parking lot.

So we took him home, had a steak dinner. I laid with him on the floor and cried. My friends came over and sat with me, my dad came home early. We tried to prepare ourselves as best we could. The next morning we carried him into the car, and on the way to the vet it was like he knew, he welcomed it. We parked closest to the door and opened the back of the car. We each said goodbye to him one at a time, my dad and I took the longest. We had spent so much time with him, we trained him, he was my baby, my dad loved him. When the vet staff came to take him in, they gave me his collar and his tags.

That night I couldn't sleep, I laid on the couch in our front room, I had Honey with me and I held his tags tight. My dad and I cried, over the loss of our family member.

We had that hole there till my dad called me into the living room and he said "I can't do it. I miss having him here. I'm not asking you to be ok with getting another black lab, but I can't handle just having Honey." So we laid out some ground rules, and my dad found Ricku 2 months later.

One of his owners was already overseas, deployed. The wife, his other owner, was getting ready to deploy as well. At first, they were asking for $100 but then she saw us all there and she saw my dad almost cry when he saw the big ole chocolate lab running about. She said as long as we're a loving family we could take him.

Even now, it's been 4 years since we put him down and my dad or my mom will still slip up and call Ricku, Brutikis. Even now, I teared up writing this. I loved him so much, and I still miss him. having Honey there was the only reason I was on board with my dad getting Ricku. Do I love both these dogs, yes. Is there still a bit of emptiness from Brutikis, there is.