"A Dog Has Died" by Pablo Neruda=Wonders of Dogs as Pets

For Better or For Worse:

7 / 13 / 2014 Poem of the Day: A Dog Has Died BY PABLO NERUDA My dog has died. I buried him in the garden next to a rusted old machine. Some day I'll join him right there, but now he's gone with his shaggy coat, his bad manners and his cold nose, and I, the materialist, who never believed in any promised heaven in the sky for any human being, I believe in a heaven I'll never enter. Yes, I believe in a heaven for all dogdom where my dog waits for my arrival waving his fan-like tail in friendship. Ai, I'll not speak of sadness here on earth, of having lost a companion who was never servile. His friendship for me, like that of a porcupine withholding its authority, was the friendship of a star, aloof, with no more intimacy than was called for, with no exaggerations: he never climbed all over my clothes filling me full of his hair or his mange, he never rubbed up against my knee like other dogs obsessed with sex. No, my dog used to gaze at me, paying me the attention I need, the attention required to make a vain person like me understand that, being a dog, he was wasting time, but, with those eyes so much purer than mine, he'd keep on gazing at me with a look that reserved for me alone all his sweet and shaggy life, always near me, never troubling me, and asking nothing. Ai, how many times have I envied his tail as we walked together on the shores of the sea in the lonely winter of Isla Negra where the wintering birds filled the sky and my hairy dog was jumping about full of the voltage of the sea's movement: my wandering dog, sniffing away with his golden tail held high, face to face with the ocean's spray. Joyful, joyful, joyful, as only dogs know how to be happy with only the autonomy of their shameless spirit. There are no good-byes for my dog who has died, and we don't now and never did lie to each other. So now he's gone and I buried him, and that's all there is to it. Source: Poetry (February 1999). PABLO NERUDA Biography  More poems by this author

Expensive Veterinarians and What Happens When Your Pet Dies, Part III?

Recently another one of our pets, Charlie, died.  Charlie was a male, white Maine Coon Cat and he was 12 years old.  Charlie was not plump and soft and fuzzy.   He was always skinny, standoffish and ornery, but the 2 of us liked one another.  He was mostly an indoor cat.  Sometimes in warmer weather he would go outside for a bit, but not too far from the back door.  Recently he went out and did not return on his own.  Usually he would be ready to run back inside after about 1/2 an hour or so.  At one point after he left he came close to the back door when I opened it but did not come inside.  After 3 days we saw him outside about 20 yards from the back door.  My wife patiently talked to him and eventually she was able to scoop him up and bring him inside.  His eyes looked vacant and distant.  He seemed skinnier and he had not had any of his medications while he was away.   He seemed to be on death's door.  Had he gone away to die?
 So my wife took him to her family veterinarian.  Poor Charlie was full of maggots.  When he came home he could barely walk, most of his hair was shaved, and he had a feeding tube.  My wife mostly fed him for about 1 month.  He did not seem to improve in that time.  The bill from the vet was about $8,000.00!!  It started at about $1400.00 and slowly but surely crept up.  I thought $1400.00 was a lot, but $8,000 ultimately.!?  And then one morning I came downstairs and Charlie was dead.  So again what is a veterinarian's responsibility to counsel against such a bill?  Should Charlie have been put down immediately?  Was the vet only fattening his wallet?

How do you bury a pet?

Another pet bit the dust yesterday.  That's 5 in the last year!  Three dogs and two cats have died, all of them older.  They are all buried in my yard.  (Many cities/towns, etc. do not allow this.  There are pet cemeteries where pets can be buried, for a price.)  Tyler was a too skinny grey 18-year-old cat.  He did not look a day over 3 or 4 months old.  My brother-in-law dropped him off at our house a few months ago because he's fixing his place up for sale.  My wife guessed that Tyler was here to die, and so he did. And he smelled.  B.O.  And he meowed, loudly.  None of the surviving pets liked Tyler.  I liked him.  My 2 year old son loved him as Tyler would not run away from him.  Now Tyler's gone.  We thought he was ready to die a few days ago so we took him to my wife's family vet.  I told the vet that Tyler seemed to be ready to die.  The vet disagreed and suggested that we do some tests on Tyler to the tune of $851.00!  He told me this with a smile on his face. (My brother-in-law was listening in on the speaker function on my cell phone.  He fell off his chair when he heard the dollar amount.)  What do you do in such a situation?  Do you spend whatever to try to prolong your pet's life?  Should the vet tell you that you will be spending a lot of money potentially in vain?   What is right and wrong here?   My brother-in-law asked for a less costly option.  This came to $250.00.  I've heard that veterinarian pricing is going up and up.  

What Happens When Your Pet Dies?

We all love our pets, most of the time.  When they die it can be very very tough.  How much would you spend to keep a sick pet alive?  $0, $500, $5,000, $20,000, etc.  When a pet is older and sick is it the vet's responsibility to counsel you to not spend a lot of money trying to keep your pet alive?  Apparently often a great deal of money can be spent and then the pet dies anyway.  Sometimes you may be able to spend thousands and often not.  Some of us will try almost anything to keep a pet alive.  It's personal.  A pet can be a family member like a child.

When death occurs there are pet cemeteries where you can bury your pet.  A plot will cost about $500 to $1200 depending on the size of the pet.  You will need to buy a coffin.  Most are polyethylene.  They will cost from $200-$700 at a cemetery depending on size.  You can buy them for not much money online but the cemetery may give you a hard time.  That can be overcome.  Usually memorialization is optional.  A memorial at the cemetery will cost you anywhere from $700 and up into the thousands depending on size, etc.  You can buy them for much lower prices online.

Typically if you would like to cremate your pet the vet can handle that for you.  Not all vets have a crematorium.   Those that do can actually do an individual cremation for you.  Many pet crematoriums handle group cremations of pets.  Some people like to keep their cremated pet(s) somewhere in their home.  Some don't want to ever see their pets in any form after death.

And some people like to bury their pets in their yards.  A lot of towns, cities, etc. do not allow this.