I have known Roscoe most of his life. Lindsey was friends with Adam when he was a puppy, so I knew him when he was just a little dude worming on Adam's bed. His first collar was a hemp collar, and everyone knew him as Lindsey's special friend. I can remember him interacting with Shiner, or hanging out in Lindsey's College Station apartment. It was all good times.
When Lindsey and I started dating Roscoe suddenly took on new role for me, as he was always the first man in Lindsey life. When I would come to visit her in Denton he always slept with her at night, and during the day he would make beds out of piles of her laundry. He was quick to growl at me if I pet him or even moved at a time when he didn't appreciate it. She would laugh at this every time, happy that her little man never put another priority before protecting her.
He was a very active dog then, as I can remember one day when we went to a park in Denton that was a big circle and he was able to walk longer on it than I was. He also loved to chase a ball and bring it back to you. One day we went to a park and I figured out that I could extend how far the ball would roll by throwing it onto a basketball court so it could roll afterwards. That day he got so worked up he barfed afterwards. Lindsey stayed mad at me for a week after that.
Me and Roscoe had a few encounters like that in Denton, where I did something to rock his world or mess up his life with Lindsey. Sometimes even when I was really nice he would suffer, like the day I fed him too much ham. Our relationship at that time was always contentious but I still wanted to take care of him because I appreciated him as a dog. I will always be a dog person.
I remember when he started to develop cataracts because of steroids he was given to control allergies that affected him his entire life, we took him to a dog opthamologist in Houston that wasn't very helpful and wasn't willing to clip his toenails. Lindsey to his final days always felt bad that he got afflicted with cataracts only halfway through his life, as it was obvious that after he started to become blind he couldn't do things like chase a ball anymore. But throughout most of Roscoe's life he was forced to be active and live in an active household so I never felt he really suffered until he became completely blind and that scared him into inactivity (like avoiding walks).
Another memory I had of Roscoe was the time when the three of us went on a trip to Port Aransas. It didn't go completely smoothly as Roscoe got pretty sick and puppy Xena was hard to control, but in retrospect it was out first real trip as a family and was my favorite vacation ever until Lindsey and I went to St. Croix years later. I will never forget the look sick Roscoe gave me as tried to get him ready for one more walk on the beach. It was the first time in life I didn't feel alone and Roscoe was part of that.
By the time I moved in with Lindsey in 2008 she had already gotten Xena who I considered to be "my dog." Poor Roscoe was faced with song after song proclaiming him to be number 2 because of this. As I usually do I gave him many nicknames at this time, but none he liked and none that stuck. Roscoe during this period also benefited from the extra care Xena got. Like his food upgraded when hers did, or taking her on walks to contain her explosion became walks for him. Despite his smaller size he would never fall behind on big walks at UTPB or in the country club. He would never run for shade like the boxers did.
Because Roscoe knew Xena from a young age he did his best to control her. Early in Xena's life he bit her over food, and from that day forth Xena would always defer to him even when she was starving. Xena ate when he let her eat, and she and him would fight over "the good spot" (ie next to the chest of a human) in the bed. But overall Xena and Roscoe had a great relationship, as we all lived together in that little duplex on the edge of the country club for years.
I can remember times when Roscoe would get Xena worked up to get into a Rosa's trash bag on a table she knew she shouldn't touch, just because he knew she would knock it on the floor and then get could get some. Roscoe was always crafty like that.
I can also remember him and Xena running circles in my parent's front yard. Him carrying on, her going run run run leap. That ended up being my favorite memory of the two of them interacting, and was prime Roscoe and Xena being together. They were friends for all of Xena's life.
Another good memory I have is when we took Xena and Roscoe on a trip to Alpine so I could help set up a clinic there. We spent the day in Alpine doing things like going to the museum or seeing the countryside, and at night we ate at a place in Marfa I will never forget. For Roscoe's part of it I will also never forget him peeing on a fake plant in the stairwell at the hotel, so proud of himself for making another mark on the world. Later in his life he would pride himself for taking a poo on every walk we did, as if it was his life mission.
When we got Luna in 2012 Roscoe took a permanent step back in his own life and ours. Unlike Xena, Luna didn't know how to play with little dogs and she didn't respect him like Xena did. Early on he got in a fight with her and she cut his lip. The "you see this!" that followed left a scar on Luna and made it so she would always defer to him, but when she would get excited he would get trampled almost no matter what. Eventually thanks to her he wouldn't get as worked up as he once did pre-Luna to avoid being trampled, which of course was a shame especially when Xena (the dog he loved the most) was gone.
In late 2012 we moved to Leander and for a while Roscoe had a final renaissance. We would go on big full walks through the neighborhood that he would join on, and after a dog door was installed he had access to a real yard for the first time in his life. He would eventually learn his full way through the house, and established pee spots that I never found until we moved out.
About this time our relationship started to change and he started to become more my dog. He wouldn't growl at me at much when I tried to pet him, and he seemed more appreciative of me when I would give him time. Around this time was when he started to slow down, was when he really went blind, and somewhere along the way I went from penis he competed with to bigger dog that was watching out for him.
In one particular instance when we bonded was around 2014. I got very sick because of food poisoning, and for a week I was stuck on either the bed or a toilet. During this time the only thing that would help me feel better was a willing Roscoe laying next to my stomach. I will never forget how much I appreciated him during this time and what that meant for me. It is something I will forever associate with him as my most positive Roscoe memory.
I also finally made a song Roscoe finally liked around then: "Its that time." It wasn't his song but was instead a song for all the dogs to know I was for sure going to give them a treat. It eventually became a way to control Luna, but early on when Roscoe heard the song he would queue up to get something too.
Unfortunately Roscoe wouldn't last forever, and sometime around 2014 it became clear that he had trouble doing full walks with us. He would fall behind or get worn out, and eventually we started just taking him on the first part of the walk and then we would drop him off at the house. And then one day he didn't feel comfortable going past the curb in front of the yard in 2016 and the walks were over. My biggest regret from that time is not paying attention to when Roscoe's last full walk was, or even just his last walk period. Walking was a big part of his life so it was a shame when that was gone and it wasn't documented well.
We still had some good moments left with Roscoe at Laurel Lane though. He was a part of the day when we took pictures of the dogs in wildflowers in the ditch. Another good memory was when Lindsey went one weekend in late August 2017 to visit her grandad in Odessa and I stay home with the dogs. That weekend a new Switch game called Mario Rabbids was released, and I can remember him actually wanting to sit next to me (maybe the last time ever) while I played the game. I will forever associate that game with him, and I feel a pressure to play and beat its DLC with Roscoe next to me in the nine days before he is gone. That weekend was the weekend when he 100% became my dog too, when we finally decided we both liked each other. But we were building up to that point over the previous year.
Sometime around 2016 Roscoe started to get what we saw as senile. In an attempt to save him we took him to the vet, and we ended up having a conversation with a male vet I will never forget. He defended Roscoe and said maybe the problem was he went completely blind and that freaked him out, or maybe the problem was he was hungry. From that weekend onward I began to feed him wet food, a ritual every morning and night for years. As part of that ritual I would grow a closer bond to Roscoe, and I would finally give him a nickname he liked:
"Little Buddy Boo"
When he heard that nickname he knew he was about to get the wet food. When the other dogs heard "Its Roscoe time" they knew they had to clear a path to let him into the garage. Some days when entering the garage he would do a little jig out of excitement for the food he was about to get, which ended up being one of my favorite last memories of his little personality. Feeding him wet food also allowed me to spoil Xena some before her last days, and she would clean up whatever he didn't eat (and would sometimes get a can for herself). The memories of her flipping over and then crushing one of his bowls when the food left behind wasn't enough ended up being one of my favorite last Xena memories that wouldn't have happened without Roscoe.
When Xena died so did some of the last parts of Roscoe's personality. Without hearing her flip out about walks he no longer ever demanded to go again like he did for over a year after the last time we actually took him on a walk. Without Xena he would mostly lay by himself, as if Luna or us wasn't good enough company. We would find him sometimes shoved in some corner of the house completely out of his mind, or lost in the yard. But even though prior to Xena dying I had considered what would be the line for Roscoe, I completely shelved the idea for a over a year as I couldn't stand to lose two dogs so close to each other.
When we moved to the new house that helped him some, as the area in which he had to navigate blindley was greatly cut down- upstairs no longer existed to him. When we first moved there every time we left the bedroom door open he would rush in there to scratch himself on the carpet. But eventually I guess his sense of smell dulled and even that one last little butthole thing seemed beyond him. Until his last days he did enjoy the better yard at the new house though, he always appreciated grass and it was the best yard he ever had sadly when he couldn't enjoy it.
His last year of his life was one full of medication. What started as a single drug on his food once a day became drugs on his food every time he ate. By now that is all he lives for, to get that relief from the medicine in the food. He will stand around in our way until he gets it, as that is all that is left of him outside of an occasional bark fest when company comes over. The conniving little asshole that we knew Roscoe to be is long long gone.
Here we are less than ten days until the appointment I made to be his last day, and both Lindsey and I are doing all we can to carve out time from work and pregnancy and the holidays to spend some last quality time with him. But we both can see how gone he is, how getting him to lay next to us is more for him than for us. When I watched the 2018 Aggie bowl game with him I was able to get one last really good memory, but now its clear that his time is done.
All in all Roscoe wasn't just a good dog, or Lindsey's college roomate, but eventually also became my little buddy boo. My biggest fear is if we deny the opportunity to let him pass with dignity eventually our hand will be forced when I don't have the time to take such good care of him. But then of course I don't want to let him go, I don't want to have to move into our post-Roscoe life.
He is my friend, and I will always appreciate what he brought to my life. Thank you Roscoe.
When Lindsey and I started dating Roscoe suddenly took on new role for me, as he was always the first man in Lindsey life. When I would come to visit her in Denton he always slept with her at night, and during the day he would make beds out of piles of her laundry. He was quick to growl at me if I pet him or even moved at a time when he didn't appreciate it. She would laugh at this every time, happy that her little man never put another priority before protecting her.
He was a very active dog then, as I can remember one day when we went to a park in Denton that was a big circle and he was able to walk longer on it than I was. He also loved to chase a ball and bring it back to you. One day we went to a park and I figured out that I could extend how far the ball would roll by throwing it onto a basketball court so it could roll afterwards. That day he got so worked up he barfed afterwards. Lindsey stayed mad at me for a week after that.
Me and Roscoe had a few encounters like that in Denton, where I did something to rock his world or mess up his life with Lindsey. Sometimes even when I was really nice he would suffer, like the day I fed him too much ham. Our relationship at that time was always contentious but I still wanted to take care of him because I appreciated him as a dog. I will always be a dog person.
I remember when he started to develop cataracts because of steroids he was given to control allergies that affected him his entire life, we took him to a dog opthamologist in Houston that wasn't very helpful and wasn't willing to clip his toenails. Lindsey to his final days always felt bad that he got afflicted with cataracts only halfway through his life, as it was obvious that after he started to become blind he couldn't do things like chase a ball anymore. But throughout most of Roscoe's life he was forced to be active and live in an active household so I never felt he really suffered until he became completely blind and that scared him into inactivity (like avoiding walks).
Another memory I had of Roscoe was the time when the three of us went on a trip to Port Aransas. It didn't go completely smoothly as Roscoe got pretty sick and puppy Xena was hard to control, but in retrospect it was out first real trip as a family and was my favorite vacation ever until Lindsey and I went to St. Croix years later. I will never forget the look sick Roscoe gave me as tried to get him ready for one more walk on the beach. It was the first time in life I didn't feel alone and Roscoe was part of that.
By the time I moved in with Lindsey in 2008 she had already gotten Xena who I considered to be "my dog." Poor Roscoe was faced with song after song proclaiming him to be number 2 because of this. As I usually do I gave him many nicknames at this time, but none he liked and none that stuck. Roscoe during this period also benefited from the extra care Xena got. Like his food upgraded when hers did, or taking her on walks to contain her explosion became walks for him. Despite his smaller size he would never fall behind on big walks at UTPB or in the country club. He would never run for shade like the boxers did.
Because Roscoe knew Xena from a young age he did his best to control her. Early in Xena's life he bit her over food, and from that day forth Xena would always defer to him even when she was starving. Xena ate when he let her eat, and she and him would fight over "the good spot" (ie next to the chest of a human) in the bed. But overall Xena and Roscoe had a great relationship, as we all lived together in that little duplex on the edge of the country club for years.
I can remember times when Roscoe would get Xena worked up to get into a Rosa's trash bag on a table she knew she shouldn't touch, just because he knew she would knock it on the floor and then get could get some. Roscoe was always crafty like that.
I can also remember him and Xena running circles in my parent's front yard. Him carrying on, her going run run run leap. That ended up being my favorite memory of the two of them interacting, and was prime Roscoe and Xena being together. They were friends for all of Xena's life.
Another good memory I have is when we took Xena and Roscoe on a trip to Alpine so I could help set up a clinic there. We spent the day in Alpine doing things like going to the museum or seeing the countryside, and at night we ate at a place in Marfa I will never forget. For Roscoe's part of it I will also never forget him peeing on a fake plant in the stairwell at the hotel, so proud of himself for making another mark on the world. Later in his life he would pride himself for taking a poo on every walk we did, as if it was his life mission.
When we got Luna in 2012 Roscoe took a permanent step back in his own life and ours. Unlike Xena, Luna didn't know how to play with little dogs and she didn't respect him like Xena did. Early on he got in a fight with her and she cut his lip. The "you see this!" that followed left a scar on Luna and made it so she would always defer to him, but when she would get excited he would get trampled almost no matter what. Eventually thanks to her he wouldn't get as worked up as he once did pre-Luna to avoid being trampled, which of course was a shame especially when Xena (the dog he loved the most) was gone.
In late 2012 we moved to Leander and for a while Roscoe had a final renaissance. We would go on big full walks through the neighborhood that he would join on, and after a dog door was installed he had access to a real yard for the first time in his life. He would eventually learn his full way through the house, and established pee spots that I never found until we moved out.
About this time our relationship started to change and he started to become more my dog. He wouldn't growl at me at much when I tried to pet him, and he seemed more appreciative of me when I would give him time. Around this time was when he started to slow down, was when he really went blind, and somewhere along the way I went from penis he competed with to bigger dog that was watching out for him.
In one particular instance when we bonded was around 2014. I got very sick because of food poisoning, and for a week I was stuck on either the bed or a toilet. During this time the only thing that would help me feel better was a willing Roscoe laying next to my stomach. I will never forget how much I appreciated him during this time and what that meant for me. It is something I will forever associate with him as my most positive Roscoe memory.
I also finally made a song Roscoe finally liked around then: "Its that time." It wasn't his song but was instead a song for all the dogs to know I was for sure going to give them a treat. It eventually became a way to control Luna, but early on when Roscoe heard the song he would queue up to get something too.
Unfortunately Roscoe wouldn't last forever, and sometime around 2014 it became clear that he had trouble doing full walks with us. He would fall behind or get worn out, and eventually we started just taking him on the first part of the walk and then we would drop him off at the house. And then one day he didn't feel comfortable going past the curb in front of the yard in 2016 and the walks were over. My biggest regret from that time is not paying attention to when Roscoe's last full walk was, or even just his last walk period. Walking was a big part of his life so it was a shame when that was gone and it wasn't documented well.
We still had some good moments left with Roscoe at Laurel Lane though. He was a part of the day when we took pictures of the dogs in wildflowers in the ditch. Another good memory was when Lindsey went one weekend in late August 2017 to visit her grandad in Odessa and I stay home with the dogs. That weekend a new Switch game called Mario Rabbids was released, and I can remember him actually wanting to sit next to me (maybe the last time ever) while I played the game. I will forever associate that game with him, and I feel a pressure to play and beat its DLC with Roscoe next to me in the nine days before he is gone. That weekend was the weekend when he 100% became my dog too, when we finally decided we both liked each other. But we were building up to that point over the previous year.
Sometime around 2016 Roscoe started to get what we saw as senile. In an attempt to save him we took him to the vet, and we ended up having a conversation with a male vet I will never forget. He defended Roscoe and said maybe the problem was he went completely blind and that freaked him out, or maybe the problem was he was hungry. From that weekend onward I began to feed him wet food, a ritual every morning and night for years. As part of that ritual I would grow a closer bond to Roscoe, and I would finally give him a nickname he liked:
"Little Buddy Boo"
When he heard that nickname he knew he was about to get the wet food. When the other dogs heard "Its Roscoe time" they knew they had to clear a path to let him into the garage. Some days when entering the garage he would do a little jig out of excitement for the food he was about to get, which ended up being one of my favorite last memories of his little personality. Feeding him wet food also allowed me to spoil Xena some before her last days, and she would clean up whatever he didn't eat (and would sometimes get a can for herself). The memories of her flipping over and then crushing one of his bowls when the food left behind wasn't enough ended up being one of my favorite last Xena memories that wouldn't have happened without Roscoe.
When Xena died so did some of the last parts of Roscoe's personality. Without hearing her flip out about walks he no longer ever demanded to go again like he did for over a year after the last time we actually took him on a walk. Without Xena he would mostly lay by himself, as if Luna or us wasn't good enough company. We would find him sometimes shoved in some corner of the house completely out of his mind, or lost in the yard. But even though prior to Xena dying I had considered what would be the line for Roscoe, I completely shelved the idea for a over a year as I couldn't stand to lose two dogs so close to each other.
When we moved to the new house that helped him some, as the area in which he had to navigate blindley was greatly cut down- upstairs no longer existed to him. When we first moved there every time we left the bedroom door open he would rush in there to scratch himself on the carpet. But eventually I guess his sense of smell dulled and even that one last little butthole thing seemed beyond him. Until his last days he did enjoy the better yard at the new house though, he always appreciated grass and it was the best yard he ever had sadly when he couldn't enjoy it.
His last year of his life was one full of medication. What started as a single drug on his food once a day became drugs on his food every time he ate. By now that is all he lives for, to get that relief from the medicine in the food. He will stand around in our way until he gets it, as that is all that is left of him outside of an occasional bark fest when company comes over. The conniving little asshole that we knew Roscoe to be is long long gone.
Here we are less than ten days until the appointment I made to be his last day, and both Lindsey and I are doing all we can to carve out time from work and pregnancy and the holidays to spend some last quality time with him. But we both can see how gone he is, how getting him to lay next to us is more for him than for us. When I watched the 2018 Aggie bowl game with him I was able to get one last really good memory, but now its clear that his time is done.
All in all Roscoe wasn't just a good dog, or Lindsey's college roomate, but eventually also became my little buddy boo. My biggest fear is if we deny the opportunity to let him pass with dignity eventually our hand will be forced when I don't have the time to take such good care of him. But then of course I don't want to let him go, I don't want to have to move into our post-Roscoe life.
He is my friend, and I will always appreciate what he brought to my life. Thank you Roscoe.
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