The Week in Yum Sept 20-27

This has not been a week of yum but a week of sad. If you read my blog, you have probably heard the odd story about our crazy dog, Reno. If you actually know me and follow me on facebook, you have definitely read about her. She has been our faithful, loving companion for over 10 years since we rescued her at the age of 2ish from death row when my giant son was only a tiny four year old boy. It was a rough start because she was totally off her rocker (which is why nobody else wanted to adopt her and she was slated for the gas chamber) and it took a lot of hard work on the part of our family and her wonderful vet, tons of money and lots of experiments with different drugs until we found out that a healthy daily dose of human prozac was the only thing that turned her into something resembling a normal dog. After 2 pretty relaxed years with her, she had her first seizure while we were visiting family 3 hours away and in grand Reno style, she didn't just have one seizure, she had them pretty much every hour on the hour until we got her back to Toronto and to the emergency animal hospital to get it under control. At this point we added epileptic to her list of problems and her vet (who acted mainly as her shrink to be honest) proclaimed her a "complicated girl". Over the years her incessant chewing of her back legs caused a HUGE, digusting baseball sized lump to grow on one one of them which effectively ended her modelling career. She later grew a lump on her front paw to compensate for the removal of the huge rear growth and then, just for good measure, another big warty lump on her gum, right in the front where everyone could gaze upon it. Every time she saw Reno, the vet would shake her head and chuckle (yes she actually chuckled so shut it) and say "oh Reno, you are one lucky dog"

My poor little lemon of a dog has given us a couple of huge scares this year and we have rushed her to the vet at least twice, expecting to not be bringing her home again. Both times, she had to be carried into the car, looking like she was on death's door, only to have her jump up the second she realized where we were and hop out of the car and then spend the next twenty minutes pacing nervously up and down in the office, looking fit and neurotic as a fiddle.

This summer, we realized that she was completely deaf which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. For the first time in her life, she would sleep contentedly right through fireworks and thunderstorms and if she was poking around in the front yard she didn't try to murder every dog that came by because she could no longer hear the tinkle of their tags as they dared to walk past her home. She also started showing signs of dementia and would wake up in the middle of the night and start barking at nothing. You would notice that she would walk into the kitchen and then just stand there, staring at the floor, like she couldn't recall why she had even went in there in the first place. If she were human, she had turned into that aunt we all have that can't find her purse because she put in the freezer.

We had another scare about ten days ago that resulted in another tearful drive to the vet but ended in a bazillion dollars in supplements for her menopause and her stinky, dry skin and one crazy, alive old dog who was still hanging in there. Despite the fact that we were originally warned that we would be lucky if she lived to see 6 or 7 because of all of the drugs she had to take, we were blessed with a full decade with our nutty, stinky, beloved old pooch. Because I am a sick individual with a bad case of gallows humour, I have threatened to put her down on a daily basis for years but when you are actually looking that option in the face, it is a terrible, awful, no good day.

This week, after a very rapid decline, my baby girl died this week and so you will understand that I do not recall eating anything, I did not taste anything interesting and the only things I cooked were Reno's favourite people foods in an attempt to tempt her to eat something. I think that I have pinned a few things and shared somethings on facebook but this week has all been a blur so I am not even going to go back and see what I have done. If you are not a dog person, you will not understand the level of sorrow experienced when you lose your most loyal companion and I am sorry for that because there is nothing and no one in the world that will adore you as unconditionally as a dog from the day you take it into your home until they day they leave it. Only with a dog can you literally kick it in the head and the dog will come right back to you, head down, trusting you to not do it again. Okay, I am not advocating kicking a dog to find out if that is true or not just like I don't really mean that I have tasted poop when I declare something tastes like shit. Even The Kid, who I am pretty sure loves us a lot, started to sometimes doubt us and give us the occasional side eye by the time he was past toddlerhood but Reno loved us whole heartedly and put her life in our hands right up until her very last breath.

yes, I know I have a terrible sense of humour but she was cool with it

I no longer have anyone to yell at all day, to talk to while we rattle around in an empty house while the menfolk are at work and at school,  to lecture, to watch CNN with, to listen to me bitch about Wolf Blitzer's cadence and to cuddle with me on the couch with while I play Words with Friends. She was a champion stealer of food, lover of Ruffle Chips with Helleva Dip, hater of bananas, chronic chewer of legs, epic farter and clearer of rooms, wake the dead snorer and the poster dog for OCD. Like her humans, she was a  big personality has left a very big hole in their lives.