I uploaded these photos of Oden from my phone back in April. Back then, I intended on just writing a quick note showcasing our beautiful pup. Since then, a lot has changed and I feel this is a good spot to memorialize our sweet, perfect pup.
Back on May 12, we got the horrible news from a state highway patrol officer that Oden had been hit by a car, not far from the house. He did not make it.
I had just gotten home from work -- I would've just passed the spot on SR61 where we later found Oden. When I got home, I thought it was odd that I was not greeted by Oden. Typically, I could hear him jumping up on the door as I punched in my entry code in the garage. I thought, maybe he's with Danny in the basement, maybe he's with the kids. We had been having our fence replaced in sections, so I didn't even think he would be out back. I put away my things from work as usual, went upstairs to say hi to the kids (neither of them knew where Oden was), and then went downstairs to the basement to say hi to Danny. He was on a work call, so I mouthed, "Where's Oden?" He immediately went upstairs and then outside to look for Oden. Not long after, Danny got the call that we had lost Oden. I've tortured myself since and have watched all of the Ring camera footage leading up to us finding Oden. It's awful.
Danny came back inside the house and just said, "Oden's gone" - I didn't believe him. I lost it and then didn't tell the kids in the best way. I was so upset and in disbelief. Danny then went back outside as I told the kids and then I went to tell my parents. Afterward, while we were all upset, I couldn't find Danny. I didn't know the trooper had told Danny where Oden was. He had walked through my parents' yard to where Oden had been hit. I got ahold of him on the phone and we decided I would meet him with the car. When I got over to 61, the trooper was still there. There was another car and a man in neon construction clothes. I have since learned that he was the one who hit Oden. I'm sure his day was ruined as well. The trooper helped us cross the road to Oden. He just looked like he was sleeping in the tall grass. He hardly had any visible signs that he had been hit. I just started crying and Danny picked him up and we wrapped him in a mattress cover and a towel I had brought. When I had talked to Danny on the phone, I contemplated what to bring - I just kept saying out loud, "I don't want to do this!" I didn't want to pick out the blanket or towels that we were going to have to wrap our sweet boy in. The task seemed so simple and so difficult at the same time. After Danny picked up Oden, he decided to carry him home. I don't know how he did it. Oden was Danny's shadow.
When we got home, my mom told us we could bring Oden to her vet and they would help us. We placed Oden in the back of the Blazer and we all said our goodbyes. It didn't feel real. It felt like a dream. Danny and I drove him to the vet and they very calmly gave us instructions on what to do. It was awful handing his body over. To never see him again.
I'm not sure what was the worst part - the suddenness of it all? The horrible way he was taken from us? The fact that none of us got to say a proper goodbye while he was still with us? We are all going to miss him SO SO much. I miss how excited he would get to go on a ride in the car -- it was almost impossible to get his car harness on him. I miss how he loved sitting on your lap on the couch - even though he would move over to Danny the second he would sit down next to me. I miss how during dinnertime, all you had to say was, "get on your spot" and he never hesitated. I miss how he'd look at me, longingly, from the couch as I prepped dinner each night. I miss how he followed the sun as it moved through the house during the winter months. I miss taking him for walks and how he'd eat his "greens" on the way. I miss how he would always find tall brush or grass to go #2 in - he made cleaning up after him so easy! I miss how Colin used to turn his ears the "right" way...and how Cadence hated it. I miss how soft his ears were. I miss how he was magnetized to cardboard boxes - he loved destroying them like they were his favorite toy. I miss how he was the "goodest" boy -- he never barked, he never destroyed anything in the house, he left food in the pantry alone, he never had an accident in the house, heck, he never even really shed! Yes, he was uber protective of us and we were always on guard when someone new came to the house, but he was just the sweetest boy to our family. We always joked that we felt like we stole him from some poor family that was probably missing him. The dog that started out as "Pop Rocks" when we thought we were going to adopt Carmen from the shelter. The way he stole our hearts and made us laugh as he jumped like a pogo stick over the tennis ball at the shelter. He completed our family and we have huge, gaping holes in our hearts now. We will miss our sweet boy, our "Odie," our "Odester," for forever.
