Poor Tippy

In Happy Camp we had a heinz 57 mutt named brownie. He was well loved. He lived a long life and when we moved from HC we gave him to a lady that loved him additionally. But, as a boy I ended up with my very own puppy, Tippy. I named him so due to his black body and white tipped tail. I loved him as a boy could.

I was playing with him in our yard one day when he found an opening in our fence. He disappeared through it. I called to him but he wouldn't come. I knew that the other side of the wooden fence was a black berry bush but beyond it was the road. So, I headed toward the backyard that would allow me to go around and find him. As I was heading toward him I heard the most aweful sound. I could tell by the sound that my pup had been ran over by a passing car. I feared the worst and as I rounded the corner of our lot I realized my fear was true. My little Tippy was laying in a pool of blood by the time I got to him. I picked him up and held him as I cried. The man that ran him over was far from apologetic or sympathetic. He basically scolded me for letting my puppy run loose. Auuggghhhh. I was in too much pain to say a thing to him.

Losing Tippy was a difficult experience.

In Idaho I raised rabbits. I breeded some which resulted in quite a few babies. I had my favorite for sure. I would let it out and lay by it on the grass. It would hop around and then hop back to me. One day I was done letting it hop around and picked it up to place it back in it's cage. As I did something startled it and it jumped. It was going to fall to the ground so instinctively I tried to catch it. As I did I accidentally grabbed it's hind leg and as I did it kicked resulting in it's leg breaking in my grasp. That was a sick feeling. I evaluated the situation and realized that there was nothing I could do to fix it. I had to face the fact that my little pet bunny was suffering and due to my neglect. It was my responsibility to put it out of it's misery. So, I prepared a box with grass as a bedding. After saying a difficult goodbye and providing an awkward apology I placed my bunny in the box and then in the metal dumpster at the store behind our home. With my .22 rifle I put it out of it's misery. The difficult thing was that I had to watch to ensure a true aim so further suffering wouldn't occur.

The video clip Scott posted reminded me of these experiences. As difficult as they were life lessons were realized.