My Best Friend Died Today

[krulltime]

http://users.pandora.be/eforum/emoticons4u/sad/239.gif Yes my dog Juno passed away this afternoon. She was 11 years old. She was the best dog and best friend I ever had so far. She was a very loyal, caring, loving and much more that you can ask for a dog and a best friend.

http://users.pandora.be/eforum/emoticons4u/sad/504.gif She died of cancer.

These are photos I took of her two weeks ago...


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http://i.pbase.com/o4/55/435155/1/54835125.e.JPG

http://i.pbase.com/o4/55/435155/1/54835123.d.JPG

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[Strattonport]

I am sorry about the loss of your friend. :( This is probably a bit premature to ask, but do you plan to get another dog?

[CMANDALA]

Very sorry to hear about Juno.

Hope you can ease your pain a bit by recalling all the happy times. I'm sure there were many.

[stache]

She is released from pain.

[TLOZ Link5]

:(

I'm really sorry. Be well.

[harriet1954]

I lost a beautiful 15 year old collie in 1983 - so many years ago - and I was living 3000 miles away in California when he died at my parents home in Philadelphia. I still feel some pain thinking about this once-in-a-lifetime dog who I did not get the chance to pat goodbye. You're not alone, although you may feel as if you are. Always keep those pictures on display and keep the memories alive. It's so important!

[Schadenfrau]

I'm really sorry to hear about Juno. She was a beautiful dog and was obviously given a lot of love, Krulltime.

[krulltime]

I really want to thank everyone for the caring and your prayers for my beloved Dog and for me. She died peacefully... she got all of her favorite foods till the end. She was very happy for that. First, she was passed into sleep and then she passed from this life.

Juno occupyed a big place in my heart and that place now feels terribly empty. Her absence is the part that still hurts.

I am also sorry for anyone else that has lost a pet.

Again thank you so much for your concern everyone!

[krulltime]

This is a beautiful gift that a good friend of mine did for me... this poem made me feel less alone in my sadness. This poem can be apply to anyone that has lost a pet.

http://spookedpumpkins.homestead.com/files/JunoMemorial.gif

[Freebird]

So very sorry to read your sad news. She was very beautiful and obviously knew how much she was loved.

[TonyO]

Very sorry to hear about this krulltime. It's tough to lose a pet, especially when you have to see them suffer. She is in a better place.

[Lindah]

It's hard to lose a pet. I have two cats and I can't stand to think about what kind of wreck I will be when they leave me. I'm so sorry for your loss. *hugs*

[ryan]

She was a cutie. It's a tough thing to go through, but it gets better. Take care.

[NYatKNIGHT]

I remember Juno from the pets thread, so sad to hear she's gone, and very sorry for you Krulltime, I know it's hard.

[Schadenfrau]

How are you doing this week, Krulltime? I've been thinking about you and Juno.

[londonlawyer]

Sorry to hear about that Krulltime.

[BrooklynRider]

Hi Krull-

Sorry to hear about Juno. Thanks for sharing the news with us. One more reason why WNY is a community and not just a forum. Hope you are finding peace.

BR

[Ninjahedge]

Sorry about the pooch man.

Grieve and feel for her. But also try to let go a bit. It will make it a bit easier as time goes by......

[Gulcrapek]

Sorry for that... animals often take bigger places in our hearts than people do, rightfully so in many cases. It's a fortunate thing that she went in her sleep. I hope you're doing better now.

[Fabrizio]

Belatedly, a Bad Dog Finds His Forte: Selling Books

By DINITIA SMITH
Published: January 26, 2006

LOWER MILFORD TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Why this dog and no other? Why has "Marley & Me," the story of an overly friendly, wildly energetic, highly dysfunctional yellow Labrador retriever, spent the last three months on the best-seller lists, climbing to the No. 2 spot on the forthcoming New York Times hardcover nonfiction list?

"I was pretty confident the book would be big, but not this big," said John Grogan, the book's author and Marley's owner, sitting in his large brick house surrounded by fields and woods in rural Pennsylvania. So far, "Marley & Me," published by William Morrow in November, has sold close to 500,000 copies. It is now in its 20th printing, with 870,000 books in print, the publisher said.

As readers of the book know, Marley is dead, but as Mr. Grogan, a columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, said, "Marley's ghost is everywhere."

"Here, he was locked in here," he said, opening the basement door. He pointed to where Marley had scraped at the wall with his claws and gnawed at the door frame trying to escape. "The wood door frame was totally gone to the studs," Mr. Grogan said. ("He was an obnoxious greeter of guests," he explained later. "For the sake of our company, unless they were really, really good friends, we would lock him there so they could come over without being slobbered on.")

Then he walked over to another spot where Marley had scraped at the drywall and gnawed at the wood corner piece. "I sanded it and filled it with putty and painted it," he said.

Marley was, in a way, a dog who loved too much. He would hurl himself through screen doors to get to Mr. Grogan or his wife, Jenny Vogt. When they locked him in a metal dog crate, he separated the steel bars.

"It looked like the Jaws of Life had pulled it open," Mr. Grogan said. Marley flung drool on guests. He stole Ms. Vogt's underwear. He ate her jewelry. Thunderstorms gave him anxiety attacks, and then he would chew through things, mattresses, the couch.

But "Marley & Me" is not just a book about a dog. In fact, it is a love story, of Mr. Grogan and his wife, a young married couple contemplating having a family. "We were young," the book begins, irresistibly. "We were in love." Ms. Vogt was nervous about caring for a baby and thought a dog "would be good practice," Mr. Grogan writes. A breeder offered them a discount on a puppy. "The little guy's on clearance," Ms. Vogt begged her husband as Marley somersaulted into their laps, gnawed on their fingers and clawed his way up to lick their faces.

Reviewing the book in The New York Times, Janet Maslin called it "a very funny valentine to all those four-legged 'big, dopey, playful galumphs that seemed to love life with a passion not often seen in this world.' "

"It's a book with intense but narrow appeal," she continued, "strictly limited to anyone who has ever had, known or wanted a dog."

The book follows the couple through their efforts to have a child. When Ms. Vogt suffered a miscarriage, Marley seemed to mourn with her.

"His tail hung flat between his legs," Mr. Grogan writes, "the first time I could remember it not wagging whenever he was touching one of us. His eyes were turned up at her, and he whimpered softly."

When their three children did arrive, he became their guardian, delicately licking their faces and ears, allowing them to crawl all over him. The problem, Mr. Grogan writes, was not keeping Marley from hurting one of the babies, but keeping him out of the diaper pail.

After Marley died in 2003, Mr. Grogan wrote a column about him for The Inquirer and was stunned when he got 800 responses from other dog owners. He thought Marley's story might make a book and wrote a proposal; the final manuscript was sold to Morrow for $200,000.

Lisa Gallagher, William Morrow's publisher, said she began to suspect the book would do well when she noticed staff members passing it around among themselves. Morrow printed nearly 6,000 readers editions and sent them to booksellers. It also gave away copies at last June's BookExpo America, the industry trade show, in New York. In a nod to the book's tearjerker qualities, the company distributed tissue with Marley's image on it at regional bookseller meetings; it also sent Frisbees with the book's title on them to stores.

Dan Mayer, who buys pet books for Barnes & Noble, was enthusiastic about the book because, he said, it is "more of a memoir." And then there's the book's cover, a photograph of Marley as a puppy looking appealingly up at the reader. "It's really hard to walk past the cover of this book and not want to pick it up," Mr. Mayer said. Barnes & Noble chose "Marley" for its Discover program, which earns a book prominent display space in the company's stores and on its Web site, reviews in in-store brochures and often priority for advertising and author readings.

Of course, a large part of the book's appeal is that Marley was a very, very bad dog. And the book is a lesson in unconditional love. The Grogans tried obedience school, but Marley was expelled. They sent him again, and this time he came in seventh in a class of eight. The dog behind him was "a psychopathic pit bull," Mr. Grogan writes. Marley ate his own obedience certificate.

These days, Marley lies buried in an unmarked grave in the garden at the edge of the woods. The Grogans now have a successor, Gracie, who is 18 months old. She is a female Lab. Like all Labs, she is exuberant and high-spirited.

"But what she has is what Marley didn't have," Mr. Grogan said, "the ability to calm down."

"We call her the anti-Marley," Mr. Grogan said.

[londonlawyer]

Hi Krull-

Sorry to hear about Juno. Thanks for sharing the news with us. One more reason why WNY is a community and not just a forum. Hope you are finding peace.

BR

That's a nice message, Brooklyn Rider!

[krulltime]

How are you doing this week, Krulltime? I've been thinking about you and Juno.


Hey I am doing much better guys and girls!

Tomorrow I am going to pick up her ashes... It will be in a box. Not sure yet of what to do with them.

:( I still miss her alot but mostly what I think of is the joy we share together. That gives me happiness. :)

[Schadenfrau]

I'm glad to hear that you're doing better.

My boyfriend's cat died around the same time as your Juno. We picked up her ashes last week and are planning on scattering them on the top of a mountain in Connecticut, a very beautiful and bucolic place.

Seeing as you were so close to your friend, you might want to take a weekend out of town to celebrate her memory and put her in her final resting place. I imagine it will really help you to find some peace.

[nickiemae]

krulltime, don't be sad anymore because i'm sure that Juno would be happy if she sees you smiling.. :)

[Drexel]

Krulltime,

So sorry to hear about your pet......I know exactly what you are going thru, I had to put my cat asleep last April and there is not a day that goes by without me thinking about him. Our pets lives are just too short ...

[nycbound]

Krulltime- Juno looks like she was such a sweet dog & a loyal companion. From one dog lover to another I am sorry for your loss and hope that as each day passes, your spirits are lifted higher and higher.

You said that you were picking her ashes up. Another idea that I have heard about, is that some people take a small portion of the ashes and incorporate them into a small piece of jewelry- I'm not sure how it works. It sounded a little creepy at first, but the more I thought about it (have been thinking about it over the past year- I have an older shih tzu w/a bum heart- and it breaks my heart knowing that at some point she won't be around any longer).. so anyway, I started thinking that it would be nice to have a little piece of her w/me at all times.

I'm sorry if that sounds creepy- not my intention... just wanted to share another idea that may or may not be for you... I'm sure it's hard trying to figure out what to do. But like previous posters said... keep thinking of the great times that you had w/her and I am sure that she felt blessed to have you w/her at the end.

Take care.

[krulltime]

Thanks for the ideas nycbound... But I am finding a nice box to put her ashes in. I might go to williamsburg, Virginia... They make good boxes there. My brother got one from there. They are like in this metal and goldish coding and you can put a name on it. They make it right there in front of you. Really a neat idea aswell.

[TLOZ Link5]

Hi Krull-

Sorry to hear about Juno. Thanks for sharing the news with us. One more reason why WNY is a community and not just a forum. Hope you are finding peace.

BR

Awww...I really liked that message.

GROUP HUG!!!!!!