Goodbye, Pitch

Everyone who knows me, knows I have had a love/hate relationship with this yellow lab of ours. He was purchased from a lab farm and obviously, had to compete among the other dogs for attention. His name was "Pitch", as in baseball pitch. The man who previously named him, had all of his dogs named with a baseball theme of some sort. Although, when Pitch would get out of our backyard and I would be yelling down the street "PITCH, PITCH, get back here," I know the neighbors thought I had a potty mouth and was yelling profanity!

This was more of Scott's dog than mine. He responded very well to men. He would not listen to me during the day, but when Scott came home, he was putty in his hands. He was a hunting dog for Scott and they spent a lot of time climbing trails together. His favorite was the lake. We would throw those orange dummies and he would fetch them for hours. The problem with him being a male's dog, was that I was home all day. He would bark for hours driving me crazy! I would try to make my voice sound really low, like a man's, but that did not work for long. We then went to bark collars. He was very smart, he would figure out the pattern to the bark and time it just right, avoiding the shock, the little stinker. He then realized if he held his head under water in his dog dish, it would short out. After three of those very expensive collars, I was finished with them.

Hence came my poor reputation with brooms. I would chase him around the yard, with my deep manly voice, trying to get him to stop barking.He would bark for hours and hours, all the while my frustration with him would increase. He was playful if I was out there with him, but I had other things to do during the day and lost my patience many times. This is where Scott and I could differ. He would come home, Pitch would stop barking and he would say, "I don't know why you are so frustrated with him" and I would fume at him and the dog.

This last year has been hard to watch him age. He turned seventeen, and for a lab that is very old! He was losing his quality of life physically, but still barked every day. Every summer, as he deteriorated just a little bit more, I would think this is it, he can not make it any longer, but no, he was just too happy in our family to let go. I really want everyone to know, that I am so sad to see him go. We had to put Pitch down tonight, as he could no longer stand, walk or stop barking. I would carry him out to the tree to do his business and then watch him as his poor little body would try to make it back to the house. I was ready to let him go because it was really sad to see him suffer. I will miss his love of oranges (he ate one every day), his love of water and chasing balls, and the sheer delight he brought Scott and our family. Goodbye, Pitch.