Ranger became our "baby" in the spring of 1991 when our youngest daughter Tanya came home from university to work in Toronto for the summer. Once she had secured her job, she said, "I want a puppy". We had not had a dog since 1989 when we said good-bye to Pepper, our 15 year old black Lab cross.
My thoughts quickly went to getting a smaller dog, as I had to carry Pepper up & down stairs his last few weeks. I did not know the name of the breed I wanted but I did know what they looked like.
Mother’s Day week-end we drove out to a kennel to look. We came home with Ranger. Dad named him thus because of the Glasgow Ranger soccer team. Ranger immediately became the center of our family.
Tanya went back to university in the fall and Ranger became Mum’s little shadow and Dad’s game partner. He loved protecting anything he had, be it a sock, a biscuit or a stuffed animal. He held it in his front paws while hovering over it with his mouth and growling. He wanted Dad to try and get it, and if he should stop, he was promptly bumped by his little black nose.
All four of our kids eventually left home and Ranger became our entire focus or so it seems now. His personality was so huge that it amazed us when how small he really was. His joyful greeting when we came home, his barking at the squirrels and the mail man, his devoted companionship and his sweet, angelic face were all parts of his personality.
This spring he really started to slow down. By June he would no longer stay outside unless Mum was with him, his nightly walks were not demanded, and his appetite was poor. Subsequent visits to the vet revealed a piece of wire in his intestines. I have been haunted as to how it happened as he was not a dog to eat anything but food. ( Even then he was selective.)
What was supposed to be a routine operation to remove the wire, was a trauma his poor wee body could not recover from. He lasted 24 hours before he gave up the fight. We have been so devastated by this that we cannot come to grips with God’s will. I know time is supposed to help, but right now they are just words.
