Lost my best buddy 3 weeks ago...

Herb G.

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It's taken me awhile to come to grips with the fact my best-est buddy is gone now.
Coal was THE BEST DOG I ever had, hands down.
We raised him from a pup & he lived to be 13 years & 19 days old.

Most Black Labs are friendly, he was really special. Everybody was his friend.
If you rubbed his ears, you had a friend for life.
We named him Coal because he was blacker than the inside of a coal mine at midnight.

We loved him more than the law allows, and he had more toys than any 10 dogs you'll ever meet.
Cancer robbed him from us, he wasted away from 85 lbs. to less than 30 lbs in a few short months.
All we could do was make him comfortable. There was no cure or treatment.
I choke up & cry even now, after 3 weeks.

Coal passed away from us at 3:30 AM on May 24th, 2018. My wife found him in front of the fridge at 5 AM.
He loved laying in front of the fridge because more often than not, he got a snack when it was opened.
I am still beside myself with grief & cry at the drop of a hat when I think of him.

If you're lucky, really, really lucky, once or twice in a lifetime, you get a special dog.
Coal was that dog. I will leave this here because my screen is blurry & hard to see.

Coal.jpg
 

woodtickgreg

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So very sorry for your loss. Took me about a year to get over the last dog I had for 14 years, liver cancer got her. Every time I came home and opened the door I expected to see her there all excited and waging her tail like crazy. She is now in a box on my dresser. Animals enriched our lives, when the time is right there will be another. I don't choose my animals, they choose me. I had a lab mix once too, she was a great dog, she is buried on the land I used to own and where she loved to be.
 

Ray D

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So sorry to hear Herb. Losing a companion like your Coal is a very difficult thing to deal with. My thoughts are with you as you deal with your loss.
Ray
 

Tony

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Herb, losing a good animal is a horrible painful thing, I'm so sorry for you. Just remember all the good times and years y'all had together. Be strong man, this will get better. Tony
 

FranklinWorkshops

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We had a chocolate lab named Echo. He earned that name because when we were training him, we had to repeat our commands over and over. Once trained, he was the best we ever had. Loved to ride everywhere in my pickup, especially to the landfill since the clerk there always gave him a dog biscuit. He lived to just short of 13 and died of natural causes. Still miss him and he's been gone for 10 years.
 
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Herb G.

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  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
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Thank you all for the kind words. My wife has been inconsolable.
We already got another rescue so Zack has a friend. (I posted about Reese earlier.)
Reese is a comic & a very likable puppy.

The only consolation I can manage to grasp is that the good Lord saw fit for us to take care of Coal while he lent him to us. He's back in God's care now, playing with his big brother Kodi.

I have had dogs for 50 years straight, but I never had one that I'm so upset over losing.
I'm sure time will help heal the wounds, but it's very hard to overcome right now.
I have been wanting to do some stuff in my workshop but I just don't have the energy or the drive to do it right now.

Thanks for reading. I appreciate it.
 

gman2431

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Chokes me up reading your post... I lost my yellow lab the same way a little over a year ago.

He was also "one of those dogs" that will always hold a special place. He and I together faced some pretty tough times and I'll never forget him.

I still read this poem every so often to remember him...

20180616_125517.jpg
 
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