For the love of a dog

My dog Teddy was a Maltese/Shih Tzu mix. He got hit by a car at night time on Saturday, February 17, 2024 and had to be euthanized. It had been raining most of the day, and he hadn’t urinated since morning time. He didn’t like going out in the rain. I took him out for what I thought would be five or ten minutes; I planned on cooking tri-tip when we got back in, and sharing it with him. I had fed him tri-tip the night before.

He was running around on our property, and he was having fun. We live on two acres of land. He made his way toward the road, and I tried to get him, but he played a game where he ran away from me every time I approached him. Eventually, he went onto the road and sat down in the middle, on the double yellow lines.

Two cars were coming, each from opposite directions. They would pass each other right where Teddy was sitting. The car that would pass closest to where I was standing was a red car, and I tried to flag them down to get him to stop, but they didn’t. There was only a five second span of time between the time where the car was and when it would drive past me. If I had tried to get to my dog, I could’ve been hit or fallen down and ran over, because I was wearing flip flops, and they were slippery because of the wet ground. These variables caused the worst possible scenario, and there was nothing I could do.

My dog was hit and knocked onto the ground on the side of the road. The car that hit him didn’t even stop. When I picked him up he bit me a few times. His back was broken, he couldn’t use his rear legs but he could move his head and front legs. The harness he was wearing might have protected the front of his body.

We took him to a vet and they did an ultrasound and said his back was broken, he was bleeding into his stomach, and he would need to be euthanized. I cried for the first time in over ten years. He was only two years old.

He was a good dog. He was very loving, he would put his head on my stomach while I sat down, to show me love. I had him for a little over a year. Early on, I discovered that he could fetch things. I had some disk golf disks, and threw them and he would run and fetch them. I also bought him some tennis balls that he would chase after.

Teddy and his sister Lilly were brought home to my sister’s home for Christmas 2021 by my nephew’s father when they were puppies. A year later, in December 2022, they gave Teddy to me because they only wanted the girl dog. I eagerly took him in. I lost a lot of weight walking Teddy five or more times a day, and in March 2023 I reached my lowest weight in over three years, 265 pounds. I re-gained some weight back, but started a diet on January 1, 2024 and was making progress. Walking Teddy 7 days a week was great exercise. I would take him around the block, and down a road that was across the street. I think he was trying to get to that road the night he got hit by that car.

I had liked the dogs of family members before, but this was my first dog. This is the first dog I ever loved. The lesson to be learned is to always have dogs on a leash, unless they are at a dog park. If I could go back and re-live that night, I would always have Teddy on a leash. I will always love that dog.