Rest in Peace R.J.

Such sad news today. I ran into my neighbor across the street, RJ's dad, RJ the dog that Bindi likes so much. I said, C, how is RJ doing, as the dog was under the weather several days ago. C. said, not good. He's gone. What? He's gone? What happened? I cried in disbelief.

Apparently last weekend RJ's family went away for 2-3 days and left RJ alone in the garage, with his bed and food and water. When they came back on Monday, RJ was listless. They took him to the vet, who thought RJ had hurt his back, prescribed some pain medication, and RJ seemed to be doing better. But he started going downhill fast. After several trips to the vet, it was determined that RJ's back was broken, possibly from jumping up on something in the garage, or perhaps something fell on him. He is/was a small kind of frail, although lively dog. I always thought he was underweight, but C. said they were trying to feed him different food so that he would gain weight, but wasn't. Bindi just loved him.

Turns out RJ's injury paralyzed him, and he was crying out in the night with pain, terribly upsetting C.'s two daughters. The vet said that surgery was possible, although very expensive, and would need a specialist, with no guarantee of success. So they put RJ down yesterday. I burst into tears as C told me the story. I felt like a good friend had suddenly been taken from me and Bindi.

I am trying really hard not to be angry at C. and his family for leaving RJ locked in the garage all weekend. I've seen C's garage and it is filled with all sorts of stuff that could have potentially been harmful to RJ. Of course, fellow dog lovers, most of us would never do such a thing. In fact, when I first found out that C had left RJ alone, I said please let me know when you are going out of town again and I will watch RJ for you. But now it is too late. The puppy was only 3 years old. I am very very sad. C's wife was so upset she had to come home from work today early.

After that news, I drove out to Guilford to take S. and her friend Morgan to see "Beverly Hills Chihuahua," which was very cute, and funny, and I liked it very much. But our fluffy neighbor dog, who looked like a little lamb leaping thru the grass, is gone and our hearts are weeping.