• The days were colder, it rained more than usually, and some old bones couldn’t take stand it, especially the old, 16 year old Rottweiler who had already underwent a few hip surgeries and had severe arthritis after being hit by a truck as a puppy. She sat in the cold, wet grass, barely moving as if the life was simply slipping out of her every second, feeding the plants that grew around her. 16 years was a long time for a dog her breed, and on January 6, 2012, she’d have been 17. Unfortunately, 17 years was too much, and it never came to the old girl. In early 2011, my family came to the conclusion to take her to the Agapi... it was time for her to kick the bucket. The poor old girl lived a good, long life, as matriarch of our dirt road, but now she couldn’t get up by herself, she soiled herself much too often, when people saw her they thought she was emaciated. It was her time to go, time for us to cease her suffering.
    Cleo was a great dog. Rottweilers usually have a bad reputation for aggression and clumsiness, but she proved otherwise with her tender, gentle, and well grounded personality. She liked to roam around our dirt road, greeting all the neighbors with a happy hello. My parents and sister had gotten her from the El Cajon Pound when she was about 4 months old, and when he was about 9 months, she was too curious and ran into the road, suddenly being struck by a pick-up truck. When I was born, she was almost a year old. She always nurtured me and kept me out of trouble when I was a rambunctious baby, just like the dog “Nana” in Peter Pan. She was an awesome dog, by far, and no matter what, any dog I ever get can never replace her.
    So anyways... we took Cleo to the Agapi, and sat with her for 30 agonizing minutes while the man poked and prodded to find a vein to insert the needle. We watched her in her last minutes while she lied there, perfectly relaxed as if she knew she finally got to rest after so many years. Within second after the lethal injection, she remained perfectly still, and released her last, dieing breathe into the stale air. She was gone forever...