Tebow was one of a kind. We adopted him as a rescue puppy almost 13 years ago. He was so scrawny we thought he might be some kind of Chihuahua mix, but as we loved on him, he kept growing and growing and ended up about 80 pounds for most of his life! He was a lover and was most interested in pleasing my husband and me and snuggling with us—an 80-pound lapdog. I joked that we didn’t really have to train him because he could just tell when we were upset and would immediately stop whatever he was doing to come give us kisses. If I had a penny for every tail wag and kiss, I would be a very rich lady right now! He was very attuned to my emotions, and really, the emotions of everyone around him. He brought me through many dark times over these last 12 years and never left my side.
We called him the miracle dog because we thought we lost him no less than seven times in his life—he had spinal meningitis as a puppy, got hit by a car, was sliced by the knife of a foster child staying in our home at the time, got kicked by a deer trying to “protect” us, fought another dog trying to protect us, had knee surgery, Lyme disease, and many other ailments that we thought would take him from us. But it was as though he was powered by love, fighting each and every time to stay with us.
This is why it was so heartbreaking to have to take that decision out of his hands (or paws). On August 30, 2024, we made the kindest choice we could as many of his organs were failing. Cradling him in my arms, the last words he heard were from a song I would sing to him during our special snuggle time: “Mama loves you, ’cause you’re a good boy.” I used to sing it to him over and over as I rained kisses over his head and body, and he would roll on his back and show me his belly because he felt so safe and loved. This is what he heard as he fell asleep in my arms, and I had the privilege of feeling his very last breath on my cheek.
I am heartbroken and feel like we were so intertwined that a part of me has died as well. But I keep hearing the words of A.A. Milne: “How lucky am I to have had something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” Everyone would say what a lucky dog he was because I loved him so much, but I know that I was the lucky one.