Matt 13-270

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Profile

September 23, 2013
Hi everyone! My name is Matt. No fancy titles or extra names or anything. Just plain Matt, for a just plain black dog. I'm a no frills kind of guy.

I recently made the move here from Kentucky. I used to live with a person and a small dog friend. I'm not talking much about that time; we will just say that I didn't get a lot of vet care, or evidently much "pet time," but at least I had a home. Then my person died and my canine pal and I ended up at a shelter. A rescue group picked up my buddy, and I was left alone and scared in a kennel. Since the kennel was the only thing I had left in the world I felt a need to defend it tooth and nail. While it was all I knew how to do, it evidently didn't make a good impression on people coming through the shelter looking for new dog friends. I heard a rumor that my "time was up" at the shelter. I thought that sounded like a good thing, but got the impression that it was really a bad thing.

Fortunately some people who met me when I wasn't in the kennel found out that I really am a nice guy, if a little grumpy at times, and they asked RAGOM to take me in. I made a long trip with a couple of overnight visits with nice people and ended up here last weekend. Just when I thought I had arrived, Foster Mom (FM) and her friends arrived and we took another trip even further north to my foster home near Lake Superior.

So far I like this place pretty well. It is cold here, but there are lots of blankets and I get to sleep on cozy dog beds and stay inside all that I want. We go on walks in lots of different places, and I get to sniff all kinds of things and play a game I call "test FM's shoulder strength." We've been to the lake a few times, but while I am not scared of the water I leave the swimming to others. I get along OK with the foster sibs; I ignore my Sis because she is just too energetic and ambitious for my taste, and while the Old Guy has made it clear he isn't thrilled about my being here we have a truce going for the time being. I've met a bunch of people and quite a few dogs while out and about and like most of them.

So my luck seemed to be changing, and I began to think that the Golden Life I was hearing about might be a pretty good life for a plain black dog. But then FM followed up on a tip from one of the people that I met on my trip that they had noticed a lump on my neck. When FM felt the size of the mass she immediately took me to see the doctor. After a couple of visits it was determined that I have a bad case of Cancer. It seems there is nothing I can do about it except smile and keep on going for as long as I can. Thanks to RAGOM at least I will spend the rest of my life being cared for in every sense of the word, rather than ending my days at the shelter. For the time being I am feeling good and am taking advantage of every day.

I'll send you all updates and pictures of my time here. Thanks for reading my story. It is super nice of you to take an interest and to care about a plain black dog like me.

I've included a couple of pics of me hanging out in the yard of my new home. One is of me guarding the yard, one is in my favorite frog legs sunning pose, and one is chillin' on the deck. I hope you like them!

At a Glance #13-270

Mixed Breed Born: September 2007
Male 40 lbs

Status: Adopted

Profile

September 23, 2013
Hi everyone! My name is Matt. No fancy titles or extra names or anything. Just plain Matt, for a just plain black dog. I'm a no frills kind of guy.

I recently made the move here from Kentucky. I used to live with a person and a small dog friend. I'm not talking much about that time; we will just say that I didn't get a lot of vet care, or evidently much "pet time," but at least I had a home. Then my person died and my canine pal and I ended up at a shelter. A rescue group picked up my buddy, and I was left alone and scared in a kennel. Since the kennel was the only thing I had left in the world I felt a need to defend it tooth and nail. While it was all I knew how to do, it evidently didn't make a good impression on people coming through the shelter looking for new dog friends. I heard a rumor that my "time was up" at the shelter. I thought that sounded like a good thing, but got the impression that it was really a bad thing.

Fortunately some people who met me when I wasn't in the kennel found out that I really am a nice guy, if a little grumpy at times, and they asked RAGOM to take me in. I made a long trip with a couple of overnight visits with nice people and ended up here last weekend. Just when I thought I had arrived, Foster Mom (FM) and her friends arrived and we took another trip even further north to my foster home near Lake Superior.

So far I like this place pretty well. It is cold here, but there are lots of blankets and I get to sleep on cozy dog beds and stay inside all that I want. We go on walks in lots of different places, and I get to sniff all kinds of things and play a game I call "test FM's shoulder strength." We've been to the lake a few times, but while I am not scared of the water I leave the swimming to others. I get along OK with the foster sibs; I ignore my Sis because she is just too energetic and ambitious for my taste, and while the Old Guy has made it clear he isn't thrilled about my being here we have a truce going for the time being. I've met a bunch of people and quite a few dogs while out and about and like most of them.

So my luck seemed to be changing, and I began to think that the Golden Life I was hearing about might be a pretty good life for a plain black dog. But then FM followed up on a tip from one of the people that I met on my trip that they had noticed a lump on my neck. When FM felt the size of the mass she immediately took me to see the doctor. After a couple of visits it was determined that I have a bad case of Cancer. It seems there is nothing I can do about it except smile and keep on going for as long as I can. Thanks to RAGOM at least I will spend the rest of my life being cared for in every sense of the word, rather than ending my days at the shelter. For the time being I am feeling good and am taking advantage of every day.

I'll send you all updates and pictures of my time here. Thanks for reading my story. It is super nice of you to take an interest and to care about a plain black dog like me.

I've included a couple of pics of me hanging out in the yard of my new home. One is of me guarding the yard, one is in my favorite frog legs sunning pose, and one is chillin' on the deck. I hope you like them!

Updates

Sunday, September 29, 2013

 

Matt's former foster Mom here to tell you the end of Matt's story.

Matt brought his illness and some tough baggage with him from KY.  But he also brought the part of him that was gentle and loving and peaceful and could experience joy.  Matt's greatest happiness was to spend time doing something with his person.  Hence the description of "former foster Mom above":  when it became clear that Matt was not going to live long enough to find a family of his own he chose me to be his person for the rest of his life.  So in his final days I was no longer his foster, but was his family.

When I faced the fact that the negative parts of Matt's life were staring to outweigh the positive, I had to make the hard decision that a little bit of GREAT time was going to be better for us all than more hard times.  So I gave Matt the best gift I could think of - 24 hours of my total attention.  Along with my 2 dogs we visited the dog bakery, perused the neighborhood, ran in the fields at the local retriever club on a sunny fall afternoon, grilled steaks for dinner with cupcakes for dessert, played "popcorn catch" (he was awesome at that) for a midnight snack, and curled up right next to each other on the bed to dream of all of the wonderful things we had done together.  The next morning I held him in my arms while he took those memories with him to the rainbow bridge.

Many thanks to RAGOM for bringing Matt to MN, so he could end his life happy and belonging to someone who loved him.