Bittersweet Goodbye

Our sweet family dog passed away this week. 

Chester was a big part of my life growing up. He was roughly 14 years old and he came into the family when I was 11 years old. I loved to take him on walks, experienced a lot of adventures with him, explored a lot as his one and only sense was his nose, and laughed/cried a lot by his side. When I had something to say, good or bad, I would run to him at the end of our acre and vent haha. He was the #1 listener. ;)

When I got older I unfortunately brushed our relationship under the rug quite a bit. Even though I filled my time with friends and socializing, however, Chester was my running buddy. I loved to run and we could probably have taken the fishpond trail with our eyes closed. We came across a lot of animals together and even though Chester's nose was always buried in the grass, I always felt like he was aware and I was safe. There were some not-so-bright moments though where I would die laughing inside as I silently watched him blindly head into the grass following that crazy nose of his headed straight for deer. If only he would just look up! He would always jump and get startled when they would blow their cover and run away. 

Chester was always full of so much energy but became slower and slower. He started to get arthritis in his legs as well as some other health issues. He used to yank us around on walks but it didn't take long until his health took over and walks took 10x longer because he was quite slow. Some days we literally had to pull him along. :( It was pretty sad to see him in this condition and so sick. What a trooper though. 

Cats were Chesters nemesis when he first arrived at our house. He would chase our neighbours wild cats all the time and caused quite a bit of trouble. In his old age he became quite the softy because his best friend become a cute white cat with a goopy eye haha. (you will see her in the video later)

When we first got Chester he also would follow us to school all the time. It was a struggle as we would have to part and head into the elementary building while he got shut outside. One day we were just getting back from lunch and as we opened up the school doors Chester bolted inside. I still can picture everyone's excitement as crowds of kids chased him through the halls screaming out his name. He was  a well-known dog. Some knew him as a neighbourhood nuisance as he got into garbages a lot and would make cars wait as he slowly made his way across the street cluelessly. One time he even got hit and disappeared for a few days and we thought we had lost him but he returned home. He always found his way home and for the most part he was everyone's buddy. Good ol' Chester.

I am quite grateful that Chester is no longer suffering and that my sweet parents have one less family member living at home haha. Chester loved my Dad best, his master. Chester wasn't the most obedient but when my Dad's low voice came out, he would apologetically drop to the ground and hope for a belly rub. HA! Crazy dog. I will sure miss him though. I have a million memories floating around in my head as you can tell by the contents of this messy post. I gathered up some photos but it really just doesn't do my love for him or his cheery life justice.

Love you, Cheppy!

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