I can hardly stop crying long enough to write this... tonight (Friday night, although it's now early Saturday morning) we buried our dachshund, "Siggy." He was either 12 or 13 years old... we're not for sure because we rescued him from an animal shelter when he was only 1 or 2 years old.
Siggy (full name: Sigmund Freud Kelly) was Natasha's dog and he was quite a character. True to his name, he was a study in psychiatric behavior... canine psychiatric behavior. He was extremely OCD -- spending hours at a time barking at squirrels who taunted him above our tree-house or digging holes practically to China.
Without a doubt, he suffered from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and he would become so depressed in the winter that we once put him on doggy Prozac for about 6 months!
This faithful, little dog made the move with us from Little Rock to Baton Rouge nearly 10 years ago... He lived in a cramped apartment with a tiny balcony while our new house was being built. He's lived through 4 hurricanes and 2 "adventures" (we finally found him). Several years ago, our vet told us that Siggy either had cancer or kidney failure and that we should make our peace with him... he lived another 6.5 years.
In his earlier years, he was quite affectionate and extremely patient, but these past couple of years have been hard on all of us. We knew Siggy was not doing well because his temperament had gone a bit sour. Personally, I don't think he ever fully recovered after the death of his friend, Beowulf (Nadia's Labrador), 3 years ago. He just never was the same.
I pray that he knew we loved him even though these past couple of years were less than ideal. And I will unfailingly believe that we will see our crazy little black-n-tan once again some day... probably chasing squirrels in heaven. Soul or no, a God who loves animals so much to create as many as He did, will surely bring them home to Heaven.
So, goodbye Siggy.
You will be missed.
