I Said Goodbye to My Best Friend

And I’ve honestly never been so relieved

Oso during one of our rare snows

“Oso” means bear in Spanish and that’s exactly what he was, a big ole white teddy bear, a gentle giant. He was absolutely the kindest, gentlest soul, despite his size. At his heaviest, he was around 115 pounds. Oso was a German Shepherd, which is my husband’s favorite breed. When my friend Wendy called that day 11 years ago, to ask if we could take him, there wasn’t a whole lot of deliberation before we agreed.

I worked at our local police department as an emergency communications officer for 14 years. Our department handled emergency calls, as well as other incidents, such as animal complaints. For about two months, it began being a bi-weekly occurrence of receiving a complaint from one residence in reference to possible neglect of a canine.

Several times it was that the dog appeared to have no food or water for days while it was obvious that the owner was out of town. Another time that made my blood boil (I tend to care about animals more than most people) was during a strong storm. The dog was on a chain and had wrapped it around the tree that it was tied to so many times that it was too short for him to reach his shelter and get out of the elements. Naturally, we sent an officer who helped get him untangled and made sure that this white German Shepherd was safe for…