It's obvious I don't blog much anymore, but when something happens that tells more of Ryan's (Kyle's) story, I feel obligated to update this. Add to the archive of his life story. Actually, there's a lot I could add, but this story is cool.
Let me preface this by saying that even though I referred to him as Kyle for the years I was blogging, my son's name was actually Ryan. And in August he'll have been gone for 10 years. But truly gone? Read on...
Ryan was an animal lover. But our lives were so busy there were barely enough hours (and dollars) for 5 kids, let alone a pet. But they wore me down, and 6 months before Ryan passed we got a dog. My wife got a lead about a beagle puppy at our local animal shelter, and that was enough to make me cave. I always wanted a beagle. When I saw the dog, I realized the shelter did a bait-and-switch on them. The beagle puppy had just been adopted, but look at this dog... It was a 5+ year old terrier, maybe with a little beagle in her bloodline. But that was OK, she was a sweet, loyal dog. Maybe because she had obviously been abused in the past. They took her home, and Ryan was beyond excited. After much discussion they named her Ryley. Ryley attached to Ryan. He loved that dog. But it's funny, when Ryley got scared, she came to me. For example, when there were thunderstorms she'd be trembling and I was the only one who could reassure her. More on that in a moment. When Ryan passed, the dog mourned for a long time. You wouldn't think a dog would know. She knew.
Fast forward to the recent past. Ryley was slipping. She was 15 or 16, nobody knew her exact age. She was completely deaf, and almost totally blind. She had dementia, and couldn't control herself. After a while we realized it would be cruel and selfish of us to keep her around any longer - it was time to let her go. We took her to the vet, we're waiting for the doc, and my wife is talking to the dog reassuring her. Then it was like Ryley had a moment of clarity, she heard my voice, looked into my eyes, relaxed, and never stopped looking into my eyes until she was gone. The last thing my wife told her was that Ryan would be waiting for her. I was happy I could provide Ryley comfort, but devastated by the thought that I couldn't protect her from this.
2 nights later my wife's phone rang late at night. Whenever a phone rings early in the morning a parent's heart stops. But in this case it was one of Ryan's best friends. He was excited to tell her about a dream he just had, a very vivid dream about Ryan. He described it, and told my wife that Ryan said he was doing great. Then, without knowing anything about the dog, said:
"Ryan said he has Ryley."
