Friday, March 22, 2013

The tribulation of Trixie the Doberman (don't worry, she's been adopted)


Spoiler alert: If you watch this, you will bawl your face off. Or maybe just tear up a little. 



The low down is that Trixie the Doberman's owner died 30 days ago (give or take, at this point) of natural causes, and she stayed curled up on the couch with him. She almost died herself, but neighbors called the police when they noticed the mail piling up. As is typically the case with stories like this, there were many offers to adopt her, but according to the above newscast, a vet tech fell in love with her and was bringing her home the next day.

Trixie is a sweet looking red girl, shaking very hard in the video. I wonder if part of this is because she was confronted by a camera. It could also be the shock of the shelter environment, which seemed very barky at the time, and is a whole lot of people when you've been with your dearly departed owner for a month.

I'm happy to hear that Trixie is going to a new and loving home, and I hope that she learns to love her vet tech as much as she did her previous owner. I hope she's never in a situation like that ever again, as it's a terrible thing for anybody to go through. In part, it's made me think of a post KB did a little while ago on Romping and Rolling in the Rockies, entitled "Do Dogs Understand Death?" My comment on the topic is currently thus:

I definitely read your post with interest, but I haven't really experienced dogs around death, so I don't really have a formed opinion on what they understand. Really, I don't understand death either, so I can't blame them if they don't.
I will say that Elka seemed particularly sad the first (and so far only) time that she killed a moth. She was following it and sniffing at it, and smooshed it against the glass of the front door. She then brought it to me and looked at me with big liquid eyes, like "Why won't it fly?" It was like a Disney movie.

7 comments:

  1. Oh the poor thing. I'm glad she is getting rescued.

    Sam understands death - he treats it differently then when something just goes away. Even my horses understand it.

    Sam

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  2. Gosh poor Trixie. But we are happy she has a new home
    Benny & Lily

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  3. A month! Oh my heavens that poor baby...I'm so glad she's found a loving new home

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  4. Oh what a nice video. so glad she is getting another chance.

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  5. I actually almost teared up about the moth and Elka's reaction! That reminded me of the time Blueberry brought a baby bird into the house - it had probably fallen out of the nest as it was a wee little naked thing and was quite dead and when she brought it in to show me she kept moving it around with her nose. She was so gentle with it and never even broke the skin when carrying it. I told her it was ok and there was nothing we could do.

    So glad for Trixie - what a great story. A little disturbing though that it took a month before anyone noticed that something was amiss.

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  6. Poor Trixie, but glad there was a happy ending to this story. Based on my own dogs and horses, they definitely understand death and even grieve for lost companions.

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  7. Being a life long animal person (you know, more worried about the animals dying in movies than people), and knowing perhaps the point from which the neighbors were interviewed, I found it a tad bothersome no one felt remorse for not checking on their human neighbor; perhaps they did, edited out to highlight Trixie, whom I would love to have as my dog, too.
    Years ago, I adopted a GSD mix dog 15 years old, found in a similar situation. His owner died at home; he was found next to her two weeks later. He was a great dog, a tottering defender of those in danger (I have a whole story), and was sorry to send him to Heaven at 17.

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