Our remaining dog, Bartok died today. He was at least 15 years old.
Bartok was a stray that was found and then offered to us. At the time, we already had Mercedes. So we took her over to him to see how they would handle one another. After a brief showdown, they came to some sort of agreement and were friends for life.
We named him Bartok after the composer and after a character from the animated movie "Anastasia." His name was Sheri's idea. The vet estimated his age as about the same as Mercedes, so that's what we went with. He was definitely a mutt - some sort of mix between Chow and Pit Bull and maybe some other breeds. He looked intimidating, but in reality, he was all about love. He wasn't all that bright. He usually just followed Mercedes' lead. I would say he lived in the bliss of ignorance.
He liked to roll in the grass, bark at other dogs, and had a "happy howl" when he wanted some attention. He lived in three states (Tennessee, Missouri, and Texas) and was a fixture in our household.
He was pretty healthy his whole life. But during the last year he started developing arthritis issues, became nearly deaf, couldn't see very well, and started losing weight. The last couple of weeks he took a steep downturn, so we made the difficult decision to put him down.
After almost 16 years of having a dog or dogs in the house, it is very weird not having him around.
Some may ask, "How many animals have you had?" We've had a number of them, but there is now only one left from the "1st generation" of animals we acquired before the girls were born. That would be our female cat, Aria. We have three other cats we rescued from the local shelter here within the past 2 1/2 years. We expect this "second" generation (I call them the "Three Stooges") to be around for awhile.
Bartok will be terribly missed.
