Title: Page 65 part 18: Saying goodbye
Author: Doc
Key Words: Mega Angst
Category: R, S, A
Summary: Sometimes saying goodbye is the hardest thing you can do.
Note: Hey Didi, happy 16! You've got a car!
Disclaimer: I don't own the x files, yada yada yada



"Buddy, no. Bad dog!" Dana yells at the 10-year-old dog, as he lays his head down in shame. Dana's cleaning up the carpet, since he had a little "accident" again. This would be the third time this week.
"Mom, leave him alone, he's not hurting anyone." Josh said, defending his dog, who still wouldn't look at his masters.
"Mulder, he's getting out of control." Dana said to her husband later that evening.
"I think he even snapped at Rosie too." She said, as she mixed up some rice for dinner.
"He's getting old, Dana. He's not the same dog anymore." Mulder said, as he tried to grab a carrot, but Dana smacked his hand away.
"Oh, is that a turn on, Dana Mulder?" Fox asked, as he whisked his eyebrows.
"Nope, that's just a signal of what I'll do to you if you take one of those again." She said, as he bent down to kiss her. Their kiss started out casual, but grew intense by the minute. Dana giggled.
"Mulder, the kids might hear us." She said, but he just replied by nibbling on her ear, and putting his hands where only a man can touch.
As they were pronouncing their love, a yelp, growl, and cry came from the back room.
"Rosie, stop it!" Josh screamed at his little sister, who started to cry.
Fox and Dana entered the room, to find Rosie on the floor, screaming her head off.
"What happened in here?" Dana asked, giving her children a mother look.
"Rosie pulled Buddy's tail."
"Bad puppy." Rosie yelled, in between sobs.
"So he bit her." Josh said, proud of his dog. Dana was horrified. She went over to Rosie, and Fox was trying to calm her down.
"Rose, where did the puppy bite you?" She asked, as the toddler stopped crying for a minute, and opened her hand. She still had a pout on her face. Dana looked at it, and she frowned herself.
"It's just a little scratch. Buddy's got all his shots." She said, as she brought Rosie by the hand into the bathroom to get some hydrogen peroxide and some Band-Aids.
"Buddy wasn't trying to hurt Rosie. He just got hurt himself when she pulled his tail." Josh said, as his father nodded, not knowing what Dana was going to do about Buddy. Buddy looked up at Fox with sad eyes.
"I knew you didn't mean it, pal. I just hope that Dana'll be okay with it." Fox said, as he stroked his beloved companion on the head.

"Mulder, we really need to talk." Dana said, after they had gotten both kids to bed.
"What? Is it about the dog?"
"Yes it's about the dog. Mulder, I'm not sure if we can trust him anymore. He's getting older, and he's a different dog. He was great with Josh, I just hope that having Rosie two years ago wasn't that big of an adjustment. I mean that we weren't there that much, but we weren't when we had Josh it was okay."
"Have you made an appointment for the vet yet?"
"Well, actually I have, because of his uncontrolled bladder, and he has trouble standing up sometimes."
"Maybe he's just getting old, like the rest of us."
"What if he lashes out one day and bites one of the kids? What'll we do then?"
"We'll deal with that when it comes. Just take one day at a time, okay Dana." Fox said as he kissed his wife goodnight.

Meanwhile, on the back patio, Buddy lay on the porch, wondering what he could have done to deserve this. All the poor dog needed was love. He loved Rosie so much, but she just didn't understand sometimes.

Part II:

The next morning, Dana went outside in the patio. Buddy was inside his doghouse, sleeping. Dana could tell because his nose was sticking out.
"Hey Bud. How you doing?" she asked as she clapped her hands. He didn't move. She looked at him, and he licked her cheek and whined. His eyes were filled with such pain.
Something was terribly wrong with him.
"Mulder!" she yelled, and in seconds, her husband was right down on his hands and knees beside her.
"What's wrong with the Budster this morning?"
"Something's wrong, Fox. He can't stand up!" Dana said, as Buddy lay on his side and whined once more. This was a different kind of whine, though. It was a deep moan almost, Dana and Fox had never heard it before, and it scared them.

In about an hour, Fox had taken apart the doghouse and had Buddy in the car. Dana woke Rosie (the sleeping beauty protested because it was the weekend) and Josh since this possibly might be Buddy's last trip to the vet.

"He's got bad arthritis in his lower left quadrants, and he's got a condition that's called Subvalvular Aortic Stenosis." The vet said, as Dana's eyes grew wide. The rest of the family looked from Dana to the vet, with puzzled looks on their faces.
"It's his heart, guys. There's something wrong with his heart." Dana said, as Rosie felt the tension in the room and started to cry.
"Dana, since you are a medical doctor, can I talk to you outside please." Dr. Ruffner said as she nodded and left her heartbroken (no pun intended) family in the patient area.
"This condition is very common in Golden Retrievers, which makes it so complicated. Since it's at its later stages by now, a whole lot will change. This upcoming week will hit buddy hard. There is no cure, but we can give him pain medication and make him comfortable. I can't say how long he's got, because I know buddy's a fighter, but I wouldn't guess he'd last more than a week." The vet said.
"Thanks, Doctor, but I know that we both feel that euthanasia would be the best bet, especially if Buddy's in pain. Can we at least take him home tonight, to say goodbye." Dana asked as the vet nodded.
"I wish I had better news. I lost two goldens myself to this disease. I know what it feels like as a dog owner." He said, as he shook Dana's hand, and went on to his next needy pet.

On the way home, the bought chew toys, bones, and squeaky toys galore. Buddy would be the happiest pup around. Certainly a prince for a day.
Everyone treated him so pampered, except for Rosie, and she didn't exactly know what was going on. While Dana was playing with buddy, wrestling with a sock (one of his favorite games) he stopped and let go of it, and started to have a seizure. Dana sent Josh outside with Rosie, since the kids did not need to see this. The old dog's eyes rolled back into his head and he shook from head to tail. Dana held his head, while Fox held his legs from buckling together. When the seizure ended, he looked up, a little confused at first, and trying to familiarize his surroundings. He licked Dana's hand as if to thank her for helping him.
Josh came in through the front door, leaving it open. This was his dog we were talking about. The dog he grew up with. The dog that saved his life not once, but twice.
"Buddy, you're okay!" he said happily as he bounced over to give the dog a kiss. Buddy licked his cheek, and then perked up his ears. He ran out the door, leaving Fox, Dana, and Josh confused.
The next thing that happened was all a blur. All that Josh heard was the screech of tires, a yelp, and a cry. The cry wasn't from Buddy, though. Dana and Fox surveyed the scene. Buddy was lying limp in the road. There was a green minivan that took one look at what he'd done, and put his car in reverse. When he had backed up, Dana saw lying in the street was a toy plush alien, much like the one that Mulder got Rosie. Then, on the other side of the street, Rosie sat there, whimpering.
"Buddy hit me, it's not his fault." She wailed.
Dana looked at Fox and raced over to her daughter. Josh went over to Buddy. His eyes were closed, and his breathing labored.
"It's not his fault. It's not his fault!" Rosie cried, as Dana comforted her. Surprisingly, Rosie didn't have a scratch on her.
Fox put Buddy in the back seat, and Josh held him all the way to the vet, where they were prepared to say goodbye.

"He's got paralysis in his back legs. We could try surgery, but..." The vet went on, but Dana stopped him.
"We have made a decision, and we thank you for your impute, doctor Ruffner, but we've decided to put him down. Let us all just have a moment with him, okay?"

Fox and Rosie were first (Fox didn't want Rosie to go in there alone)
"Hey there, buddy. You are the best dog I've ever known, and seen. Remember when I got you as a present for Dana? You were so small and helpless then. I went inside and you stuck your little paw through the cage. When the assistant told me that this was the first time you would even look at somebody, I knew you were right for our family. You have proved that so many times, Buddy. Today was an acceptation. You were hurting so badly, and still you thought of those you love rather than yourself. That kind of runs in this family, you know. I just wanted to say thanks." He said, as Rosie peeked out from behind her daddy's leg. The three-year-old girl slowly advanced to the dog that saved her life. She was at a loss for words, and just ran up to him and threw her arms around the fluffy dog. With Rosie, Mulder was hesitant. But for the very first time, Buddy's long pink tongue licked her in the face and he put his front paw on her shoulder as if to say, "I'm glad you're okay."
"Buddy, I promise, I'll never play in the road again. Please don't go to heaven. I want to play with you again." She cried, as buddy softly licked the tears from the girl's cheeks.

Dana was next to say goodbye.
"Hey there boy." She said, as his tail thumped as she entered the room.
"I still remember when Mulder got you for me after we had our first fight. It was originally supposed to be that Fox would have gotten a guard dog, but we decided that you were just a big teddy bear. That is, until I became pregnant with Josh. You would have killed yourself for me that day, and I think about it every day. You saved me once, but you saved Josh twice and now, you saved Rosie. Our family wouldn't have made it this far without you, boy. We always thought of you as my dog, but now you have proved that you belong to the family. I love you, buddy. I always will." She said as she kissed his head, and he looked up at her with trusting eyes.

Josh, the boy who had lived with this dog for his entire life was the last to say goodbye.
"Hey there, buddy. We've sure been through a lot together, huh? We've always been together, no matter where we go. You know why? Because best friends do that for each other. You saved me twice, yes. But you've saved me so many other times. I have learned from you, buddy, to enjoy the simple things in life, like take a nap as often as you like, or chewing on old socks sometimes because it just feels right. Most of all, buddy, I learned that no matter what happens, you always have to have love. We've been through so many journeys and triumphs together. We got through them because we were together. This journey though, Buddy. You're going to have to face alone." Josh said, as he patted the old dog, and wiped the tears out of his eyes before his parents see.
The whole family was inside to let him go. Josh held him, as the vet inserted the needle to end his pain. As buddy closed his eyes, he slipped from this world and into another. And then he crossed the ever so famous Rainbow Bridge.