My name is Goldie and I\u2019m a very good dog.<\/p>\n
I like to wiggle my nose and close my eyes while the wind rushes around my face. I also like napping and playing in the grass.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t like loud noises or water hoses. My last owner would yell at me and swing the garden hose at me. It made me feel like I had done something wrong.<\/p>\n
I never knew why he did that.<\/p>\n
My current owner is more like a dad to me. He is not very expressive, but his eyes are very kind and he treats me well.<\/p>\n
I can tell he has been through a lot in his life. His kind eyes look old.<\/p>\n
He never yells at me, but I still get scared when he bangs a bag of ice on the ground.<\/p>\n
He has a son who doesn\u2019t always pay attention to me, but that\u2019s okay. I can tell he has been through a lot, too. I\u2019m always there for him so that when he does need comfort I can lay my head on his knee and tell him that everything is going to be all right.<\/p>\n
When it rains and thunder booms in the sky I always find him and he always comforts me until the loud noises go away.<\/p>\n
Is the sky angry with me?<\/p>\n
Every time my dad comes home I wag my tail and meet him at the door. When he sits down I rest my head on his leg and use my eyes to beg for him to pet me.<\/p>\n
I really like to be petted.<\/p>\n
My dad does not seem to age.<\/p>\n
He still has the same brown hair and the same face from when he rescued me.<\/p>\n
I, however, can feel the ache creep into my bone, and when I look in the mirror I can see the white hairs replace my golden ones.<\/p>\n
I think there\u2019s something wrong with me now. I\u2019ve lost my appetite and my ribs are now well defined through my skin.<\/p>\n
My dad keeps looking at me and I can tell there is worry in his face. He rubs his hands along my ribcage and sadly sighs.<\/p>\n
He had his son take me to the vet.<\/p>\n
I really do not like the vet.<\/p>\n
There are too many smells, most of them unpleasant, and they poke me with needles that hurt.<\/p>\n
He and the other people there petted me and gave me comfort while I waited to be seen by the doctor.<\/p>\n
My dad\u2019s son was quiet the whole drive home, but kept looking back at me with worried eyes.<\/p>\n
I know something is wrong with me. The rain falls, but it can hardly hurt me now.<\/p>\n
I keep trying to act the same way as I always have, but I\u2019m starting to feel tired.<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t run as far as I used to and I have a hard time jumping onto the couch where I like to lay.<\/p>\n
Today I couldn\u2019t even jump. My dad\u2019s son helped me onto the couch so I could be comfortable though.<\/p>\n
I am glad that they are here for me.<\/p>\n
I laid my head on my dad\u2019s head when he got home.<\/p>\n
It was my way of saying goodbye. I had to thank him for all the things he has done for me. I want him to know that spending time with him always made me happy.<\/p>\n
I wish I had more time with him.<\/p>\n
He stayed up really late with me tonight. He understood that now was the time for goodbyes and he petted me for hours.<\/p>\n
Eventually he had to go to sleep and now I lay down beside his bed. I want to be here when he wakes up.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m feeling really tired. I think I\u2019ll fall asleep now. I hope I\u2019m still around to say good morning to him.<\/p>\n
I see a light, but\u00a0I don\u2019t want to go just yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My name is Goldie and I\u2019m a very good dog. I like to wiggle my nose and close my eyes while the wind rushes around… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[160],"class_list":["post-910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"aioseo_notices":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"authors":[{"term_id":160,"user_id":6,"is_guest":0,"slug":"christopher-n","display_name":"Christopher Neal","avatar_url":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/wp-content\/litespeed\/avatar\/317b48bd3fc6b7bc409e99ad28e2c4e1.jpg?ver=1778637593","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":919,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions\/919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}