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A Dog Faces Death: ‘This Is Awesome!’
My dog is dying. He has cancer in his shoulder. We’re all very upset. Well, all of us except the dog.
We got Griffin at the pound when he was about three years old or so, we think, so he’s probably about 10 years old now. Or so. He looks like a black Lab, but I think he’s just a mutt. He won’t get near water, and when I throw a ball he gives me this questioning look as if to say, “That was a perfectly good ball. Why did you throw it all the way over there?” I’ve only seen him swim once, and that was when I threw him in our pool (I just wanted to see if he was able to swim). So he looks like a Lab, but I think he’s a mix of heaven knows what. He’s been a great dog. He’s very friendly and social. Everybody loves Griffin.
I have friends who brag about how smart their dog is. “Cornelius is such a smart Schnizterdoodle! He can sit, roll over, and do multivariable calculus!” You will not hear me describe Griffin like that. He has the strength of an ox and the brains of tapioca pudding. He is always happy because he’s been blessed with the ability to enjoy the world around him without understanding anything about it. So this cancer thing has been wonderful for him.
He started limping about a year ago. We finally took him to the vet a few months ago, and they found a cancer in his shoulder that is untreatable. They could remove his front leg, and that might buy him six months. But it might not. So we brought him home. With all his legs intact. He was so happy that he jumped out of the car and ran over to pee on the tree that he always pees on.
It was a stellar day in Griffin’s world. This is awesome!
And it only got better. Now he gets lots of treats. Not just from us. Our next-door neighbors are spoiling their grand-dog with so many treats that he’s gaining weight. She goes to the butcher to get bones for him with lots of meat still on them. Other neighbors make special trips over to our house with biscuits. The FedEx lady missed him today and came back around later to give Griffin his daily treat. His mommy even lets him up on the couch now.
Every day he’s amazed by his good fortune.
He’s having more and more trouble walking, and can’t get around like he used to. But Griffin thinks all this is swell. As he gets fatter and fatter from all the treats, while laying around on our couch. Like me.
In my line of work, I spend a lot of time with people who are dying. I try to buy time, and make them feel better, but sometimes there’s nothing you can do. Most of them, I think, aspire to approach death like Griffin. Enjoy the time they have left. Have an extra cookie. Spend more time on the couch with your loved ones. Why spoil your few remaining days with worry and unhappiness?
But this is very difficult for most people. They know what’s happening to them, and they’re naturally obsessed with their own mortality at such a time. Griffin’s lack of understanding makes it easy for him. Griffin has no idea what’s happening around him, and he doesn’t care. But he would like another biscuit, please.
Sure, why not?
Ah, what a stellar day, thinks Griffin! This is awesome!
Some day in the near future we’ll need to take Griffin back to the vet, and end his life. Griffin won’t understand that either, but that will be a great day for him too. Because he’ll get lots of treats and petting that day, and those things make him happy.
It’s been fascinating to me, watching Griffin get weaker and weaker, while becoming happier and happier, because he’s getting more and more treats. The end is coming for him, but as long as he keeps getting treats, and can sit on the couch once in a while, that’s ok with him. He doesn’t really understand what’s happening around him.
But he understands treats. Everything else is beyond his control. So he focuses on his treats. This is awesome!
In an unrelated matter, a friend of mine told me last month that she was voting Democrat because Biden said that everyone would get free healthcare, and she expected him to extend her unemployment (she’s a waitress who lost her job during the COVID crisis). I told her that it was dangerous to ignore the long-term implications of economic policies. She said she doesn’t know anything about economics, but she knows that she wants more unemployment benefits. There are more jobs available now, but she’s making more on unemployment than she was as a waitress, and she’d rather sit on the couch and eat treats. Like Griffin. Makes sense to me.
So she votes Democrat. And she gets her treats. Everything else is beyond her control. So she focuses on her treats. This is awesome!
Eh, never mind. I forgot where I was going with that. Forgive me. My dog is dying. I’m very upset. But my dog thinks everything is awesome!
I wish I shared his lack of understanding of the world around him. I’d probably be a happier person.
Postscript:
When I finished this essay, I wondered which group of people would be most angry with me:
- Those who thought that I was comparing Democrats to dogs
- Those who thought that I was comparing dogs to Democrats
Just to clarify, I was doing neither.
I was simply trying to point out the power of the Democrat message. They don’t require that you understand economics, or human nature, or the world around you, or anything else. Those things are hard for people. You just have to like treats.
They also don’t require that you understand delayed gratification, or planning for the future, or hard work. Those things are hard for people, too.
But if you like treats, and you don’t think about things too much, voting Democrat can make you happy, like Griffin.
Until it all ends. Like Griffin.
Both of those endings will make me sad.
Published in General
They are all there; all the dogs you ever loved. Waiting by a big pile of sticks.
Now that’s the most heart-warming and beautiful image I’ve seen in some time. Thanks, Percival.
I have long thought that the Biblical story of Adam and Eve eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil as a metaphor for the suffering and unhappiess that comes with knowledge.
Yes you are. So am I. #somanytears
Doc, this made me smile through tears. He’s lucky to have all of you, and you’re lucky to have him. Sending you all lots of love and prayers. Give Griffin a treat for me, k?
This is an awesome article! Thanks for writing it.
Mark Twain was supposed to have said that it’s a good thing Mankind gets into Heaven through Grace and not merit. For if entry into Heaven depended on merit, your dog would get in, but you would not.
He has such a shiny coat! Give him a stroke for us.
His death will be harder on you than on him; best wishes to you, too.
Hey, thanks for making me cry on a Saturday, doc!
Griffin’s got it all figured out. I wish him a very comfortable passage.
In keeping with the dog theme, why not call it: Puppy Ceausescu: The Musical
Dogs and socialists, Gazpacho. Ceausescu is my favorite socialist. I’m a sucker for a happy ending.
This is the best thing I’ve read in a long time. I nominate it for @jameslileks Post of the Week.
I thank everyone for their kind words. And Griffin thanks everyone for the extra treats you asked me to give him.
It just gets better and better!
The other thing is that being dog-like dependent on someone to provide you treats means, you are dependent. Even if it makes you feel good.
I think your Griffin would not be so happy with his day to day if all the people who care for him did less caring and less treats. But for all that Griffin IS a dog, not a person.
People are not dogs.
Even if we pretend we don’t understand economics, we pretend that consequences are not real, we do know when we are dependent. We do know when we are completely beholden to the charity of others for our survival.
It is soul crushing.
Work is not charity. Charity can be easy access, but it is not natural to exist on charity. Nor is it best. But many will choose charity if it is easy.
Woe to those who know this truth and deliberately (and unkindly) lead the weak-willed down a path of dissipation.
Best to Griffin and your family as you enjoy and savor these remaining days.
The Left needs a permanent underclass, and this is how they get it. That underclass becomes a loyal voting bloc. Indeed, people are not dogs, but they do like dogs a lot.
Evening Jules,
I think I disagree about dependence. It may not be a disagreement, just different approaches. I do not agree that dependence is soul crushing, many of us will become dependent. I think you might not be commenting on this type of dependence. At our beginnings we are totally dependent, we don’t birth or raise ourselves, and at the end we often become dependent, sometimes totally dependent. There is nothing unusual or necessarily soul crushing about this. Ten years ago next month, my pop died of pulmonary fibrosis, it is the type of lung disease that takes away your ability to breath. First you need oxygen, then a scooter to move, then you are in a hospital bed and as my pop noted (he was a doctor) once you are in a hospital bed you will never leave it. At every stage he became more and more dependent, in the end he was too weak to lift himself up the bed, so he became totally dependent. He had a clinical understanding of what was happening to him and how it would end, his soul wasn’t being crushed even as he was loosing his ability to care for himself. He showed an unmatched bravery in facing his type of disease with an ability to sustain a joyful heart throughout his decline. I was blessed to see such bravery, I hope I could be as brave.
I am thinking we are looking a different aspects of dependence. I think that we delude ourselves when we imagine our independence. My health is mostly controlled by my genetics and my age, these aspects are not in my control. Ten years ago (63), I took no medicine, now asthma, GI, scoliosis, and a torn Achilles have not only ended my pickle ball daze, but I take oodles of pills. I am becoming increasingly dependent on others to help lift things, and move things, and this is just the beginning. For most of us the end will be heart disease, or cancer, and those diseases will leave us more dependent. The effect on one’s soul depends on one’s understanding of how to live a God honoring life, while caring for others and while you receive care. This also means that one could hope that one’s body fails before one’s mind, we can be a blessing to others even as life is ending, and it is easier to be this blessing to others if you are aware and in their world.
I don’t disagree at all with what you say. There are specific instances where dependence may be, especially for the very young, the aged, and other special circumstances.
But, I think i had in mind broad dependence by those with little need to be supported.
Everything is a balance…
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. We are better for you making those points.
Agree. So much is related to how caring is given. And how it is received.
And caregivers are the best when they give all the necessary care, while giving the recipient as much agency as possible.
May you have all the care you need, and exert all the agency you have.
My seven precious Goldens are waiting by a pile of tennis balls!