Krypto, our Superdog

Being a pet parent means getting thousands of good days with your pet and then having that one horrible day. Unfortunately our bad day came on June 24th. How fitting that it was on a Monday.

We had a senior dog, so it wasn’t as if we thought he would live forever. Although to be honest, I didn’t even want to entertain the notion that we would ever lose him. I would talk to my husband about Krypto as if he would outlive us and he would look at me worriedly, dreading the time my delusion would be proven wrong.

It has to be said that Krypto’s time with us was bookended by me crying. Of course, I cried (so much) the day we had to let him go but I also cried the day we got him. I should clarify that actually, Keith got him without telling me. I arrived home from work one day and heard a dog barking. I thought he was dog-sitting but then he told me that he saw an ad on Kijiji and knew that was our dog. I burst into tears out of anger at him for going behind my back, out of worry if we were actually ready for a dog and out of being overwhelmed since I had always wanted a dog my entire life. So there I was, sitting on our couch crying, when Krypto hops up right beside me and lays his head on my lap. And that’s when I knew that Keith was right. He was our dog.

Don’t get me wrong, it was far from sunshine and rainbows with Krypto. As with most rescue dogs, we don’t really know what happened to him before we got him so he did display some aggressive behaviour at times. His way of greeting other dogs was to try and hump them immediately which doesn’t go over well. In fact, he made a life-long nemesis in the boxer from our apartment building who had a bad back that he greeted in this manner. Plus he shed A LOT. He shed to the point that we eventually gave up fighting it and just had to accept that fur would be a permanent part of our decor.

Mostly though, he was very sweet, especially with me. His foster family told Keith that Krypto was more fond of men so he got super excited and thought they would be best friends. But right after we got him, Keith had to leave for a long weekend to go to a comic convention. During those 4 days, Krypto and I bonded and when Keith returned, he immediately sensed that he was now the odd man out in this relationship.

As cliché as this sounds, it’s the simple truth: Krypto saved us as much or even more than we saved him. We discovered parts of our neighbourhood that we didn’t even know existed during walks with him. He was the therapy dog we needed for my anxiety and depression and Keith’s bi-polar disorder. He even helped improve our relationship. He would bark whenever we fought too loudly and forced us to talk it out instead.

There are so many memories that go through my mind when I think of him, mostly food-related, like one winter when he somehow found a frozen Egg McMuffin in the snow and had it in his mouth vertically, propping it open like a hockey puck or the time I made scones, left the parchment paper hanging off the edge of the counter and he waited until we were out of the room to pull on it, stole a scone from the floor and rushed away to eat it. Too many to mention and somehow words are not enough to truly convey how he impacted us.

He was 8 when we got him so he was about to turn 12 in August. Like I mentioned, he was a senior dog but he definitely displayed puppy-like tendencies with his new lease on life. He mostly slept during the day and saved up his energy for when I got home from work and the weekends. He was part of our routine and became part of our family.

We were a trio and now that he’s gone, we feel very much lost. We thought we had more time with him. He got extremely sick super quickly and his body couldn’t fight the infection off. When it came down to making that awful decision, I took one look at him and knew we had to say goodbye. As hard as it was, we had to be there every step of the way. I was not prepared with how much this hurts. The grieving continues and I don’t think this hurt ever really goes away. But hopefully, with time, it will lessen.

Krypto gave us 1,413 love-filled days. And yes, even if his last day was the worst day, I’m still counting it. All the way until the end, and even now, we can still feel his love for us.

To Krypto, our beloved Superdog, thank you for everything. We’ll always love you!