The Sun Dog

Sun Dog

A couple of years ago, we had to put down our 13-year-old lab, Gibson. It was a sad day, but he had been sick so it wasn't a surprise. He enjoyed a great life — at least that was always our impression. He was a good, loyal Chocolate Lab. His best friend and companion was Higginson.

Higginson in the sun

Higginson was never supposed to be our dog, but Gibson and our friend's dog, Shadow, had two pups. One of them was Higgy. We agreed to let Higgy live for us for a while. That "while" turned out to be about 13 years. Higginson was Gibby's buddy for many years. But, Higgy seemed like a puppy until he was about eight. No kidding, he would jump all the time, jump on people, and do all kinds of puppy type things.

We had to put Gibby down a couple of years ago. After doing that, Higgy aged quickly. He started moving slower and getting tired from walks quicker. Even when we added Coke–o as a companion, he still moved slow. You could tell that he was aging quickly. Every day we would walk Higgy about two miles, but he started to labor. He still wanted to walk, even though it wasn't that fun for him. He would sometimes walk one lap and then head home before the rest of us.

Last fall we had to put Higgy down. He disappeared one morning. I finally found him in some trees behind our house, covered up with pines. He had decided that his end was near and he didn't want us involved. I wouldn't allow that to happen, though, so we took him down to the veterinarian he had always visited in Lakeview. It was a sad, sad day. We never realized just how much we enjoyed Higgy in our lives.

Often, he would wander out of no where when we would arrive home and almost get hit as we drove into the driveway. He was a loyal dog. There are times when we arrive home from someplace and — it's strange — but we'll look at each other, both thinking, "Where's Higginson?"

He was a great dog. One of our best. And I don't think we realized that until he was gone.

Gibson in Elk Lake, one of his favorite spots.