On Thursday, Dec 9th, we said goodbye to our 6yr old Doberman, Caesar. It is bittersweet. As detailed below, Caesar was very stressful to own. A pet of both our own creation and ultimately questionable genes. He developed bloat which is apparently very typical of male Dobermans between the ages of 4 and 7. It’s horrible and unless you catch it within like 20min and have $5k on you, its terminal. We hope to never have to go through this again.

My ex and I adopted Caesar from the Doberman Rescue of Colorado in the Summer of 2004. His parents were surrendered to the rescue as their owners had lost their house. Caesar was the only red dobe in a litter of black and tan.

They say you should let dogs choose you. Caesar couldn’t have cared less. All his brothers and sister were the sweetest puppies. They all loved the visitors that came to choose their favorites. Caesar couldn’t be bothered. He was too busy digging by the fence. Nonetheless, I chose him. I want the pretty one that doesn’t care about me!

So Caesar grew up in an apt with minimal socialization. Absolutely the wrong environment for just about any dog. We bought a house when he was a little over a yr old. That’s when he started fighting with his adopted brother and biting people.

So now that he’s gone:

We can go for walks and not fear seeing other people and dogs on the way.

We hopefully will never need to use the muzzle again.

We can have people over with our remaining dobe out.

There will be no more garbage to clean off the floor from him getting into it.

Jimmy, the other dobe, will no longer be eaten.

There will be no more retrieving tupparware and dishes from the backyard which were taken out of the sink in our absence.

There will be no more “pre-cleaning” done of the dishes.

Kids and small pets can come into the house.

Anyone can watch our house now.

Our house isn’t as safe anymore.

We don’t have a helper in the mornings, which was when Caesar was the cutest.

We can foster again because there won’t likely be any fighting.

We can fix the screen door.

We will need two dogs to replace the energy that is no longer filling the house.

The figure 8 worn into the grass in the back will be no more.

We won’t have to clean poop out of the fenced off garden.

We don’t have a shadow anymore.

We don’t have an always guilty but submissive “smiling” dog to come home to anymore.

We don’t have our: Asshole, poop face, pony, sarious dorsalfinious, assface, shit head, pooponious, poowhips, WHIPS, tigar shark, poo poo san…

There’s more I could say, and maybe will down the road. But there is a huge void that this dog leaves behind. I hope I never have to fill a space so large ever again.