Woman's best friend

I am going to give you a little background on myself so you can see why this dog meant so much to me.

I was born and raised in the military, our family moved every 2-3 years. We had a couple of dogs growing up but we only had them for as long as my dad was stationed at the base. We would give the dog to a family member so we would be able to see the dog again. I never really bonded or got attached to any animals growing up.

My husband is an animal person, he's so comfortable around them and it's clear they like him. He has taught me a lot about having pets, but there is one dog in particular that became my best friend and was great emotional support for me.

In 2008 our youngest son called me and asked if we could puppy sit for his boss, who was going out of town for business, his dog had a litter and this pup was the last one to be homed and he was the runt. We obviously said yes to puppy sitting, the guy was supposed to be gone for only a couple of weeks but after 6 weeks, his first shots and neutering we were going to keep him. We named him Samson but my husband could not remember that name and kept calling him Moses so it stuck. Moses was a purebred American Staffordshire Terrier, his parents were champion lines of blue-ribbon show dogs. Moses and I bonded and I relied on him for some emotional support, because I struggle with PTSD and some anxiety.

In 2017 Moses was showing some symptoms of being ill, but we didn't realize they were symptoms. Until one day in December, he was acting very uncomfortable so I took him into the veterinarian on Emergency where they took X-rays and ran a blood test which showed he had a softball-sized tumor on his spleen and it was causing his spleen to bleed, he needed surgery. Being that it was almost Christmas we didn't have any extra money for an emergency of this kind, it was after 10 pm they couldn't run a credit check on us to apply for the Care Credit that works with Vets. I had about $50 to my name so we were stuck and he needed the surgery. I needed another $125 to get him into surgery. I had posted on Facebook to ask for prayer for our poor Moses, a friend of mine saw the post and called me to ask if she could do anything, I told her we needed some money and without hesitation, she drove down to the clinic so write me a check but I told her to just make it out to the clinic. We made it through that moment, the Veterinarian told us that we needed to make a decision if he got into Moses' belly and cancer had spread, would we put him down or would we want him to try to remove the tumors?

Twenty minutes later we received a call informing us that Moses' cancer had spread to the surrounding tissue and did we want to let him go to sleep or try to save him. It was one of the hardest decisions we had to make, but knowing that Moses would be in pain and we could be right back in that situation in about a month we had to let him go to sleep. We had him cremated and selected a beautiful urn for his ashes.

I just wanted to share that my friend didn't judge or analyze our finances she just came right over no questions asked and wrote a check so that we could get the care we needed for Moses. My friend saw a need and wanted to help us in any way she could and I am thankful, even though the outcome wasn't what we desired. To know that people still help others with no strings attached, she was very compassionate afterwards she wanted to help us during our time of grief, she was willing to come to our place to bring us meals and we live 25 miles apart. She listened when I needed to cry. I know this sounds extreme but remember I had never bonded with any of our pets growing up and we had Moses for 8 1/2 years, plenty of time for bonding. It was the first time I had lost a pet.

I sure miss this dog, he was loyal, a gentle giant, always protecting us and all-around fun dog.