From Puppy to Old Dog I Will Always Be There

Photo of a Leonberger puppy with a scarf
Bronco our Leonberger at three months old
Our Leonberger Bronco and me. He is standing on the sofa giving me a hug.
Bronco and me. Bronco about one years old.
Our Leonberger Bronco in Claudia’s lap, He weighs 167 pounds in the picture and is a bit overweight, but he lost weight.
Bronco in Claudia’s lap, a little bigger, and chubbier (but he lost weight)
Our Leonberger Bronco lying down in the grass. You can see shaved fur resulting from his toe amputation.
Bronco about nine years old. He had just had a toe amputation.
Our Leonberger Bronco lying down in the grass. He is very old in the picture.
Bronco closing in on 13 years old at the end of his life

With permission from Brend Saito (see comment), in this post I am sharing something she shared on Facebook in memory of her golden retriever, Odie, who passed away in May 2021 at the age of 12. The author is unknown.

“A dog asked :

“Tell me, human, why’d you record me? ”

The human replied, “You were so little and cute then and I couldn’t resist”

“But I ate your flowers, peed on your carpet and broke the expensive vase and all your clothes are full of hair from me… never thought about giving me away? ”

Again the man replied:

“I was also upset at first and had more work to do, but then when you sat down on my lap as usual, everything was fine… you don’t give your children to the orphanage because they once are mischievous. ”

The dog looked attentively at his owner and asked:

“But look, now I’m very old and I have my problems too… I cost a lot of money because you go to the vet with me more often and I need special food… I’m not as agile as I was 10 years ago… and i don’t smell like a baby anymore”

The mistress swallowed briefly and struggled with tears for a moment when she then answered:

“My love, you will ALWAYS be my baby, you have enriched my life and given me countless beautiful moments, now you are old and not quite healthy but that doesn’t change how much I love you.

You have always been there for me, comforted me when I was sad and made me laugh, you are my most precious treasure. And I wish we can spend more time together.

I will continue to do my best to make your life beautiful.

I will do everything for you my little darling.. ”

The dog gently placed its paws on his wife’s cheek and licked.

The sun shone in his eyes that shone like opals.

Satisfaction.

H a p p y.

L O V E

Perfection.

Harmony.

Anyone who has and loves dogs understands without words….

Illustration showing our Leonberger Bronco in the middle with a dog on each side. Rollo our mini-Australian Shepherd to the left and Daisy our Pug to the right. Rollo says "They still talk about you". Daisy says ""I know.
Bronco is in the middle, Rollo left, Daisy right. We still have Rollo and Daisy. We will never stop talking about Bronco. Illustration Naomi Rosenblatt.

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

29 thoughts on “From Puppy to Old Dog I Will Always Be There”

    1. Thank you Anjali. You are right! Some people are not prepared to take care of a dog, they just want the cute puppy, and when it’s harder than they thought they want to return it. Those people shouldn’t get a dog in the first place. A dog is a lifetime commitment. Love and take care of the rambunctious not yet potty-trained puppy, love the active healthy dog, then love and take care of the old sickly dog with the perhaps expensive vet bills at the end.

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  9. This had me in tears. I was thinking of my cat Gremlin who would plow through the clothes in my drawers, and my cat Powder who ruined lace curtains I had by swinging on them. But I loved them both. Even the dogs I had in high school: Shawn, the standard poodle who would sit down to scratch her ear in the middle of crossing a street. But what a sweet dog she was.

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  11. Just like our rescue vizsla Dennis … He destroyed our leather chaise lounge (AKA “the most expensive piece of furniture in the house”), the leather sofa, the window seat, vertical blinds, but we never even thought of rehoming him, because he was Our Boy. Or our other vizsla Tucker who slept in bed with us his whole life (so did Dennis of course) and when Tucker got old and had IBD and started having accidents in bed, we just put on chux and waterproof bedding, because we couldn’t kick him out of bed after 15 years, could we? And when they couldn’t get up into the bed anymore we took the legs off the bed so they could just walk right onto bed instead of having to jump up to it. And giving fluids to Tucker and Trouble the Kitty in their old age even though I’m needle-phobic. The things we do! 😊

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    1. Yes you are right that is how it is if you truly love your dog. You take the downsides because they mean so much to you. We are currently allowing our pug and mini-Australian Shepherd to sleep in our bed, but we can’t allow a Leonberger to sleep in our bed, he is simply too big, which is the reason we have not yet gotten another Leonberger yet. I don’t know how solve this. We just can’t enforce them sleeping on the floor at this point. Thank you for your stories about Dennis and Tucker and Kitty. They are beautiful stories.

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  12. A wonderful post! My husband and I still talk about members of our pack who have crossed over. Our Aussie mix, Beep, used to catch bugs. When we catch a bug, we still say, “Get that bug, Beep!”

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