Someone Killed My Dog

About 20 years ago, someone killed my dog. It's still kind of amazing to think about it. It's difficult for me to imagine a possible motivation, how you come to deciding to do something like that.

I had just gotten out of the military and started college. I rented an old house in a small country town about 7 miles from the school. My old dog Chekhov that I had gotten shortly after High School was still at home, so I brought him out with me.

After High School, my dad suggested getting a dog from the shelter. We went and looked and saw this bedraggled, matted reserved dog that did not come up to the fence like the others. We decided to get him. We cut off all the matted hair and took good care of him. He ended up being a wonderful dog, and when his hair grew out - beautiful too. He looked like an Alaskan Malamute. And boy could he pull too. And he didn't bark, he kind of warbled instead. He was a character and I loved him.

A couple years after we got him, I joined the military. As I came and went from home the next 6.5 years, he was always there. So when I got out of the military and went back to college I wanted him to be with me out there so I wasn't alone and I thought being in the country would be nice for him too.

So we were having a good life out there, and then one cold morning I went out and there was Chekhov dead at the end of his lead. I cried the whole time when I picked him up and loaded him in my car and drove him to the vet. I wanted to know what had happened.

The vet called after the investagion was done. His stomach was full of food laced with rat poison. Not only that, but he had a huge contusion on his side, like someone had kicked him in the side after feeding him the poison.

I was stunned. No one around me had had a harsh word about him. When I thought back I realized there was a folded up lawn chair right next to his body, had they sat in that chair and fed him the poisoned food?

Someone had decided to kill my dog, and I still find myself incapable of understanding how you arrive at that point. If they had a problem, why couldn't they have talked to me, expressed their concerns if they had any?

So this loyal, wonderful dog met a cruel demise at a point in his life when he should have had years to enjoy still. And I will never understand it.