Thursday, September 9, 2010

Grieving

We have all been grieving the loss of Bosco, well maybe not Croix.  Thankfully he hasn't seemed to even notice he's not around anymore.  Rusty on the other hand has been having the hardest time with it.  We've had Rusty since he was a puppy so he has had Bosco as a companion almost his whole life, over two years.  He pretty much fell apart after Bosco died. At first he would run all over as if looking for Bosco.  He'd go in and out the dogie door, up and down the stairs, from one room to the next.  Then he would just lay in his little corner and barely left his same little spot all day.  Normally after eating ice cream I'll let him lick my bowl clean.  He would hear the clank of my spoon on the bowl and run over to wait.  While he was grieving he wouldn't even come over after I had put my bowl on the floor.  He was just so sad and broken.  It was heart breaking!

Nights were the hardest for him.  Bosco and Rusty used to sleep in the laundry room.  It was like their kennel.  At night all we'd do is say "go to bed" and they would both get up and walk into the laundry room, lay down in their beds, and quietly stay there until the next morning.   After Bosco passed Rusty freaked out in the laundry room.  He'd scratch and scratch trying to get out, bark and howl.  He scratched a chunk out of our door and dug the linoleum up off the floor.  Clearly putting him in the laundry room was not working.  So I thought "Rusty is older and not really chewing anymore (the reason they slept in the laundry room is because Rusty was such a naughty puppy and would chew up everything in sight) maybe he would be ok out at night by himself".  That night we let him just be down stairs.  He wined and barked until we took down the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs so he could come upstairs.  Then he peed and pooped everywhere that night.  Clearly that didn't work.  So we tried to kennel him.  We had not been successful with that when he was a puppy but thought maybe we could give it a try again.  He tried digging out of it all night long.  Tore up pillows, and a dog bed.  He barked and howled all night waking us up at 3, 4, 5, 6 in the morning.  Clearly that didn't work.  I thought maybe if he was exhausted he would sleep at night.  The next day I put a leash around my waist and made Rusty stay awake, and keep moving all day.  We were both exhausted by the end of the day!  Rusty was so tired I'd be moving his paws talking to him and his eyes would rolling back in pure exhaustion.  I thought I'd figured it out!  Surly he'd have to pass out asleep if he was too tired to stay awake while I was moving him.  I was wrong.  Again he tried digging out all night long and barked waking us up WAY too early in the morning.

It was at this point I was worried he would just not be ok without another dog.  I thought we might have to find another home for him with dog.  I thought about getting another dog, but Brent really didn't want to and I didn't either.  Finally I decided our last attempt would be to let him sleep in our room with us.  He did great!  We didn't really sleep because he snores like an 80 year old man, but Rusty did great.  After a few sleepless nights we closed our bedroom door and let him sleep in the hallway.  This seems to have worked.  He's not going potty in the house at night, or chewing on things, or barking, or destroying the house.  He also seems to have cheered up a little bit, and is more like his old self.  Although he does seem older, just a little more mopey.  I don't really know how to explain it but I think loosing Bosco aged Rusty.

We all miss Bosco, but life now seems to have found a new normal.

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