kenny bloggins

we put down our family dog on wednesday.

i don't even know how old he was. i know that my aunt got him when she worked at ambassador animal hospital, he was a stray they found wandering around broad street. my family decided to pay for his shots/fixing/meds and give him to my grandfather, who was going through a pretty major depression at the time. i guess tippy kind of gave him something to do, and something to get out of bed for, because my grandfather responded really well and loved that dog like nobody's business. they'd sit on the porch together, my grandfather taught tippy to chase squirrels. he'd shoot at them with his BB gun and get tippy to chase em when they fell out of the trees.
when my grandfather died my mom and i took tippy, my grandmother didn't really want a pet and we loved him. plus, it reminded us of pops.
tippy got old. his hearing went, his vision got worse, he didn't really want to eat, he became more and more disoriented. when my mom took him to be put to sleep it had gotten to a point where he had to be carried outside to potty, and he would wander and fall in the house if left unattended. i know the picture i have of him was taken when i was in late elementary/early middle school. that would have made me 10/11, and i'm 27 now. we didn't know his age when we got him. that dude had a really good long life and thats good to think about.
its sad to see a little last reminder of family go...we were all preparing for tippy's end but i don't think we really were ready to let go of my grandfathers memory completely.
here's to chasing squirrels in the sky, little dude.