This story will be filed under the Miss Molly category. There is a special category for those type stories and I appreciate James setting that up.
Today, however, I want to talk about a very special dog that is no longer with us. He belonged to our friends, Edsel and Joyce Freeman, in the Woodhaven area of NE Jefferson County. His name was Roscoe.
They got Roscoe as a little puppy (a Boston Terrier) over 10 years ago and he was a pure delight for Edsel and Joyce. However, he recently became seriously ill and they had to face the most unpleasant decision of having Roscoe put down. Edsel had already constructed a nice casket for Roscoe, so they put the casket and Roscoe in their pickup truck and headed to Oneonta to see their vet to have Roscoe put down. They have a compassionate vet, Dr. Jeremy Edwards, with the Oneonta Animal Clinic. He asked the Freemans if they wanted to stay in the room while Roscoe was put down.
Joyce could not handle that, so she went out to the truck and started crying. Dr. Edwards and Edsel put Roscoe in the casket and took it to the truck. The vet opened the door, hugged and consoled Joyce.
Then, they went to their farm in Blount County and buried Roscoe.
When the Freemans moved to their present location, there was still a lot of homes under construction. Roscoe made daily trips to see the workmen and became pals to almost all of them. Roscoe would lie down and stay with them for long periods of time and they would give him treats.
Roscoe became known among the construction people as the “official building inspector.”
When Joyce would come home from work, she would of course be greeted warmly by Roscoe, but he would not come into the house unless she went in first and motioned for him to come in.
Roscoe was a great dog and treated everybody with respect. A lot of humans don’t even do that.
Even though Roscoe has been gone for about 10 days, Joyce and Edsel are still hurting and I am hurting with them. I simply do not know how I would handle a similar situation with my 9-pound pal, Little Miss Molly. I dread that day.
