Paco

Today, we put one of our pets down. His name was Paco. He was a black lab/chow. His temperament was kind of like Eyore. He was gentle and content. His fur was always unmanageable. I would brush and brush him, but to no avail. God gives us our animals to teach us how to love. They are helpless. They depend on us for food, shelter, and love.

Paco will be missed. He seemed to go downhill after we put Hope down about a month ago. She was in congestive heart failure. Paco loved her. Hope couldn't bark, so when she wanted to come in the house, Paco would bark to let us know that she wanted to come in. Somehow he found purpose in her weakness. His back hips were the major problem. He had a hard time just standing up. For the last two weeks of his life, I cooked liver for him when I came home from work. He seemed to happy to see me (probably because he knew his cooked meal was coming).

He was born in Highland, CA. Someone left a box of puppies on the playground at Thompson School many years ago (15 I believe). My son, Chris, was helping Robert Mercado (who was then the custodian) during the summer. Chris brought a small black fluff ball of a puppy and said, "Mom, can we keep him?" Of course we kept him. Who could say no to such a cute puppy? Not me. We had a dalmatian, Prancer, at home. He was a puppy also. We thought he could use a friend. And best friends they became. They were inseparable. Two peas in a pod. In 2012, we had to put Prancer down as he had some type of inflammation in his intestines.

Sometimes I feel sad that he lived outdoors most of his life. The reason for this was that he was not housebroken. I know my thoughts are a little scattered right now, but just wanted to share something about our dog, Paco, today.