On the first day of August, we said goodbye to our dearest boy, Diego. It was his time to go and it broke our hearts. A Labrador Retriever’s life expectancy ranges from ten to twelve years, so when Diego turned twelve in February this year, we were grateful he had made it that far. In human terms, his was a short life—twelve years, five months, and three days. But for Diego, it was a long life lived to the fullest. He gave everything he had until the last few days, when his eyes seemed to say, “I have nothing left to give.”
He was a family member, and we were a closely knit pack. We communicated with each other well—with our words, vocal intonations, and hand signals, and his body language, sighs, whines, and grunts (he was quite feisty at times and increasingly “talked” back as he got older). We anticipated his next moves even before he thought about them. He knew our daily routine so well. Like clockwork, he would get up, stretch, and start making noises at 5 pm. It was his dinner time!
We miss Diego terribly. We find ourselves expecting to see him ambling out of the room with a sleepy face, or lying on the deck sunning himself, or standing outside the back door waiting to be let in, or walking up our driveway after scouting our neighbour’s yard for a worn-out soccer ball to steal—just to quickly realize that he is gone. He won’t be coming back. Then the tears come and the painful, heavy feeling of loss creeps in.
Diego taught us a lot more than we were able to teach him. He loved each summer day and took every opportunity to dive fearlessly into the water. He welcomed snowfall like a visiting old friend. In his younger days, he showed how happy he was by jumping high, over and over, bouncing like he was on a trampoline. He made friends easily but stood up to bullies. He loved trails, found joy in discovering rivers and ponds, sniffed every blade of grass, and brought home little treasures from the forest that he kept close in his bed. He never said no to a new adventure. Our favourite look on his face was when it was time to go home after a swim. He would refuse to get out of the water and would look at us in disbelief, as if saying, “What? You want to leave now? This is the best spot on earth!”
Diego lived his life to the fullest, and in doing so made our time with him most rewarding. He was with us for only a brief period of our lives, but what a great privilege it was to have been there for all of his.
Edmund Arceo
