saying goodbye to a faithful friend

My beloved Chester past away today at the age of 11.

Chester was one of the puppies from our dog Lady Grey and at first I was suppose to give him a good home, but when the person who expressed interest in him fell through and I had to keep him for a couple of days I fell in love. This was the winter of 1996, Rob and I were engaged and living together at Columbus Village apartments. I begged Rob could I keep him and Rob kept telling me no. I came home from work one night and Chester had on a red collar with mathcing leash and a red plaid dog bed. Rob told me Merry Christmas. One of the sweetest christmas gifts ever given.
My fuzzy buddy or fuzzy butt and the best dog I have ever owned. He was the cutest furball as a pup and so good and smart. We would take him around our neices so that he could get used to kids and to see how Chester handled little hands groping him. We have a neice Jessica who has special needs and whenever she headed in a direction she wasn't suppose to go Chester would steer her in another direction and let Jessie lay all over him.
Once our own children came along Chessie had no problems letting them hang around and had never once nipped or growled at any kids.
This last few years we kept remarking how we didn't feel that Chester would make it through the winter with his arthritis getting bad in his back legs, but each year with glucosamine and chondroitin he managed. Lately getting him to go back into the dog area prompted us to use food as a bribe. We would have let him roam the whole yard but then his buddy Braxton would have gone crazy whining and barking.
I believe Braxton kept Chester young these last couple of years. They would at times wrestle or run around the yard and Chester would feel the pain later. Chester never whimpered in pain and the only way you knew he might be hurting is he would get up very slowly. Now Chester is no longer in pain. He is free and though I will miss him very much I know he is in a much better place.