my best buddy, scooby doo, died yesterday: he was an 11-year-old american eskimo in fine health. he traveled shotgun with me when i made the drive from baltimore to los angeles this july; he was definitely the leader of our little traveling circus between the cat, myself and him. light and smiling, nobody could resist wanting to snuggle up to him. even with his early passing, these last years were his best -- he had two owners prior to me.
before i moved out west, i'd been going to eastern animal hospital (EAH) in baltimore, maryland, for 18 years because the people who run that hospital are some of the greatest people i know; right there on the edge of town...on the edge of east charm city--
none of us knew at the time of my trip to california that a cancerous tumor was growing inside of scooby's spleen and that it would burst this past sunday and that i would have to rush put him to the vet monday to have him put down before he suffered --
this spleen cancer is a horrible cancer; there's no way of knowing it's there until it' too late; it happens with no warning, and there is no cure or reasonable treatment--
however, many years earlier, prior to the discovery of scooby's killer tumor, EAH dr. estelle ward, phoned me with an interesting, yet circuitous question which sounded something like, 'how i would i like to take home a 2-year-old beautiful dog that's too be to cute to be euthanized.' the dog, sky, had been hit by a car and the owner didn't want to pay for the surgery; they wanted to put sky down.
after i agreed to take sky home, i subsequently change his name to scooby (which was controversial yet, as a purest, stricly based on the cartoon character, not those dumb ass movies)
so, on his day off, EAH owner dr. jonathan kaufmann, came in to the hospital to perform the $2500 leg reconstruction surgery on scooby for $0 and in so doing gave me the privilege of sharing my life with that sweet dog for the next nine years...you couldn't not love him
to everyone at eastern animal hospital; thank you for always treating him like a king.
and to jonathan and estelle, thanks for yesterday even so late into the night~
i love you scoob...(i hate cancer; you motherfucker!!)
