Listen To Me Cry Over My Dog Spencer

What's Eating Cale

It's Sunday morning. I had to pee at 4:30a and on my way by Spencer's empty bed, I decided there was no sense getting back into bed, I needed some time to myself.

I am writing this outside in the dark. It's 5a and this time of year the sun's not even thinking about showing itself. It is as dark outside as it can be with a clear sky and a half-moon directly overhead. There is no traffic in the distance, no neighbors milling about, just the sound of crickets, frogs, and other creatures. One plane flew over head and I could hear some rustling in the field behind our house, but this is solitude.

I needed some time to myself because we had to put Spencer down on Saturday and I miss him. To catch you up, since his kidney cancer diagnosis, he was doing great, still going for walks, still playing with Bella at night, still eating - a lot. We had been feeding him mostly human food for about a week and he was loving every morsel. We'd been spending more time with him - reminiscing a lot.

We laughed about how much he loved bread and butter which we learned because he was big enough to pull things off the counters, bring them to his bed and eat them. Full loaves of bread or English muffins and butter were at the top of his hit list.

When we first got Spencer from Cincinnati, we were in the process of building our house, so we lived in a two bedroom apartment which is no place for a 75 pound dog, but we made it work.

There were four very memorable events at that apartment

1. There was the time I came home to find Spencer had raided the garbage and ate almost all of a rotisserie chicken carcass.
2. The time he snagged a bottle of peanuts off my desk, took them to his bed and somehow open the lid and ate all the peanuts. That led to him pooping full intact peanuts for days after - we said he was like a peanut dispenser.
3. There was the time when he somehow got into a giant container of protein powder. The powder was all over the couch, the floor and dried onto Spencer's face. He looked like a messed up character in Scarface.
4. At the apartment we had one of those screw into the ground tie-ups outside our patio door so we could let the dogs out for a quick pee if needed. The one Thanksgiving we spent at that apartment we invited the small group of people we typically have to enjoy a unique Thanksgiving experience at our apartment. On Thanksgiving we had Spencer tied to that when he saw a squirrel. He took off after that squirrel like shot. When he got to the end of the lead, he didn't slow down even a little and the screw-in tie-down shot in the air a good ten feet then dragged behind him for about a half a block while he perused his prey.

I've told you how he was a curmudgeon sometimes then needy others - often in the same moment. He'd give you a light growl if went to pet him, but then growl when you stopped. And how that he reminded me of me.

One thing I haven't mentioned about Spencer that many people who met him knew was that he had an affinity (some may call it an obsession) for licking people's ears. We had friends over for a little Christmas get together and Spencer got on his hind legs with front paws on a bar stool to lick someone's ears. We have pictures of our friend Dennis with his hood up to give himself a break from Spencer's relentless pursuit of his ears.

For me specifically there were moments between me and Spencer that were unique to our relationship. Whenever Spencer would finish eating breakfast, he would seek me out wherever I was in the house and I would scratch his neck and chin which would usually get one of his hind legs to thump.

When I would let him in from outside he would always get into the house a bit then turn around and wait for me to come pet him.

My favorite Spencer thing though was on rare occasions he would get on the couch between Lisa and me and he would just hang out while we pet him. Then there wo