as I explained in 2015<\/a>. And walking Romeo, I met a mother of a four-year-old named Romeo, a grandmother of an 18-month-old named Juliet, and women who pulled over their cars, rolled down their windows, oohed and aahed, sometimes offered him treats, and began to chat. It\u2019s a good thing I didn\u2019t know about the effects a dog could have when I was young and single.<\/p>\nThis fall Romeo\u2019s vet sent him and me to an internal medicine vet. The specialist diagnosed underlying conditions. They were inoperable. She prescribed daily medication and special foods. Romeo, Ruth, and I carried on, until Friday, December 6.<\/p>\n
Romeo and I played our usual half-hour of catch that morning. I went out. When I returned, our house was a mess, and Romeo was lethargic. I rushed him to an animal hospital, where a vet suggested hydrating him, medicating his nausea, and keeping an eye on him. Her physical exam found nothing unusual. Ruth and I were scheduled to go out of the country the next day and meet one of our children, now working in Europe.<\/p>\n
By Saturday, Romeo had not eaten or drunk. I carried him back from a short morning walk and rushed him back to the hospital. The emergency vet on duty gave him 50-50. I talked with Natalie. We left. On Monday, December 9, Romeo died in the hospital, with Natalie by his side.<\/p>\n
Dog people have comforting myths for the loss of their dogs. Do an online search for \u201cthe rainbow bridge\u201d sometime. I\u2019m not big on notions of an afterlife. If there is one, though, I have a strong sense of what it looks like: \u201cI throw this ball, you go get it and bring it back \u2013 everything else will fall into place.\u201d<\/p>\n
RIP, Romeo, loving and beloved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by David Jonathan Cohen Once upon a time, there was a small dog who led a large life. No one knows his name of origin. In the West Virginia prison […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":33488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3,50,5],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.foresthillsconnection.com\/wp-content\/upLoadImage2012\/2019\/12\/Romeo-2.jpg?fit=800%2C529&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6vVwz-8I6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foresthillsconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33486"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foresthillsconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foresthillsconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foresthillsconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foresthillsconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.foresthillsconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foresthillsconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foresthillsconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foresthillsconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foresthillsconnection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}