Our neighbor, a young vet assistant, knew we were devastated over the recent loss of our dog. She stopped by our house one evening with an injured dog that had been dropped off at their clinic. Her boss had said, "He's an old dog, and needs to be put to sleep." She asked if she could find him a home. She brought him over to our home. He was pitiful looking. One eye was gone, and the other eye was badly injured. We told her we couldn't take him because we never wanted to go though the pain of losing a pet again. Two nights later she showed up with him, and waved his paw, and said, "We just came by to say goodbye. He's going to be put to sleep in the morning." We reached out and took him. Our vet said he was already blind from the injury, and his eye had to be removed. It took three surgeries due to complications. We named him Bill because the first thing we had was a $1,000 vet bill. He never saw us, but he knew we loved him. We taught him to get around by clapping our hands. He soon learned his way around the house. We had him for 12 years, so her vet was wrong when he told her Bill was an old dog. We miss him terribly. Maybe we'll meet again on the other side of the rainbow.
Four months after his death, we got a white pekingnese puppy because he was so cute. Our thoughts were that our Bill must have looked like the puppy when he was little except the puppy had eyes. We named him Bill Jr.
Yorktown, VA
