All Comments on 'The First Silence'

I had to have my dog put down last year. I can understand your feelings on this matter. Pets are more than just "man's best friend" - they truly enrich our lives and add to them in a unique way.

What a sweet endearing story. Speaking from experience, there is no love like the love of a family for the family dog. Cassie story must get reenacted all over the world. What a wonderfully poignant read. Terrific Write!

Simple, short, to the point. Anyone who has ever loved a dog feels this story inside.

Thanks

I understand man, nice little story. My dog is like that also, with all that shaded hair. If it could be sold I would become a Millionare...LOL!

Nothing quite like a dog! I wish I had one now.

Boyd

Has been mentioned in the New Story Review thread of the Author's Hangout.

Same way I discovered my dog, although she wasn't a barker, she was a chow hound of a Golden. I knew something wasn't right when she didn't come up to get dinner, and a half hour later, she passed away. Hugs XOXO

After reading this, I felt the pain and love you had for your dog. As sad as it is, I am sorry to read about it. I can almost feel your feelings about writing this, and the end was with such sadness tears swelled in my eyes, but no tear shed. Only sadness. At least you can move on and remember the greatest memories as a treasure and not a weight on your shoulders.

I cryed! Sad story but real for a DOG lover.Thank You!

Just a few days ago I was talking on the phone with my brother and he was talking about the dogs we had as kids. One was killed outright by a car but another was was not killed but very mangled by a different car. ( a couple of years apart) But my brother had them mixed up. So I tried to remind him of the first one. It was terribly injured so we dug a grave in the back garden, placed "Tubby" in it and ran and hid as as a neighbour police officer was comming up to shoot him. That happened over 60 years ago but I still had to pass the phone to my wife as I was breaking into tears. Dogs do that to a person. Man's best friend. Thanks for the memories rp. Jim

Close to 40 years ago, as a small boy, I raised a baby chicken into a big, beautiful rooster, with shimmering feathers of multiple colors... if you look in youtube for a wild rooster, you'd see how beautiful their colorations are: they are just the exact opposite of the bland factory chickens most Americans know and eat... <p>

When it died, I was heartbroken for a long time. I raised another pet, a baby rabbit, and it also died too after some months. <p>

We become attached emotionally to any thing --- be they humans, animals, or anything else --- that we invest emotions with; any thing that we can invest emotions with, that is. <p>

I was told by my mother I was very attached to a family dog, but that's when I was just a baby, starting to crawl and then walk, so my memories of the dog are vague, at best... But my rooster and rabbit pets... they devastated me, when they died. I've never owned any pets since those childhood years.

I've cried three times in my life, the death of my mother, the death of my wife and the death of our eighteen year old cat. For me, at least, a very moving story. Again, outstanding.

Always make my eyes all bleary and get me all congested.

When my family lost one of our dogs when I was young, my favorite aunt told me: "Don't be sad, that she was waiting for me on this side of the Rainbow Bridge and that we would cross over to heaven together. So now I have 7 dogs playing and romping together in the field by the Rainbow Bridge - waiting for me!!!!

CarCam

ask Cassie the next time you see her, TK U MLJ LV NV

I cried.

This was a fitting tribute to a friend and family member loved and missed.

I am in the process of reading your stories and got to this one and it had a definite effect on me. Cassie was the dog in the story, mine was named Hero, we met when I met his owner and we decided to live together he was six or seven years old and she had him since he was a puppy. Ultimately he went from being hers to being mine, he looked to me first and wanted my attention and love. I have always had dogs growing up but none effected me to the extent he did. He came from being outside, he walked into our living room turned around once and fell to the carpet. I was still in bed and my wife called to me but before I could reach him he was gone. To this day over two years since he passed just thinking about him brings tears to my eyes and takes me back to that day. Some people and animals come into our lives and leave indelible marks on us. Your story brought that back to me. My response to your writing is to give you my highest praise and fervent hope to see many more stories from you in the future. To this end you are on my favorites list and I will check back often.

a Manx cat who was 19 years old when she died 2 years & 3 days ago. And I've missed her every day.

Crying....lost my pet not so long ago and she was a link to my parents that I'll never recover.

Darn you.

Been there and done that. When you’re a true pet owner and open yourself to them, the feeling of despair you get when they pass on is hard to bear. Our first dog had a heart issue at age 15. It was being controlled with meds, but then he developed a clogged bladder issue that required surgery. The vet said that with the heart condition, he would not survive the surgery so we had to make the heartbreaking call to euthanize him.

Our second dog, at age 12, started having behavioral changes and would not eat.??The vet found a tumor, likely present since birth, had grown to an extent that it was impacting her brain. Surgery would give her, at best, six months, but at no kind of quality of life. For her dignity, we had to make the call to euthanize her.

We remember the good times with each and have never tried to get a clone dog as a replacement. It’s not fair to the new pooch in that he and she will always be compared to the original.

Thank you for the sharing

They are missed

Cigany

Pepi

Buksi

Dancer

Cobi

Csibi

Csilla