If you want, you can watch your dog get the final needle - essentially an overdose of anesthesia that will end his life - and people do it all the time.
But that was more than we could handle, and we left as a kindly woman named Carrie Clausman wrapped Pudgie in a blanket and took him back to Dr. Gernhart.
And that was it. Twenty minutes later, we were back home, and I was gathering up the dog's dish and his little bed and sticking them in the crawlspace.
Why was I in such a hurry to remove all traces of an old dog's life? I'm not sure. Somehow, I think I was trying to make it easier for our youngest son, Jamie, when he came home from school to a house without a dog for the first time in his life.
People get a dog for different reasons. We brought Pudgie home in 1992 for this one: Our oldest son, Sean, was afraid of animals.
A year earlier, when he was 8, he'd been bitten by a cat. I know, I know; who gets bitten by a cat?
But somehow my kid managed to do it, and he was fearful of all creatures. He wouldn't go to birthday parties or sleepovers if there was a dog or cat in the house.
"Get a pet," someone told us, "and your kid's fear will be gone in no time."
It was great advice. But what kind of pet?
We figured a cat would freak Sean out and he'd end up on a shrink's couch 20 years later, sobbing into a tissue and recounting how his parents tortured him by bringing home the very animal he feared most.
So we decided on a dog. A small dog, my wife insisted; one that isn't too yappy and won't trash the house and shed all over.
A few days later, we pulled up to the home of this crazy Shih Tzu breeder who lived in northern Baltimore County.
When we got to his house, he let the puppies out from behind a gate where they'd been sleeping with their mother.
Then this guy laid facedown on the floor, and all the puppies jumped on top of him, yipping and tumbling over each other.
Oh, this guy was nuts, all right. But it was a great sales tactic: puppies in action.
We chose the fattest puppy, who also happened to be the most energetic. Chubby and wired - that's a combination you don't see too often in dogs. But that was Pudgie. He was like the Jack Black of puppies.
Within weeks of Pudgie's arrival in our house, Sean's fear was gone. And the bonus was this: For the rest of his life, we had a great dog to love.
Sixteen years - that's a pretty good run. We were lucky to have him.
kevin.cowherd@baltsun.com
