Savage Words: Home alone this Christmas, and it’s my honor to do so

I’ll be home alone this Christmas, but I’m not complaining. Not at all.

It’s my honor to be home, taking care of my best friend. My chocolate lab is 14 years old, and she’s slowing down. She’s slowing to a minimal pace.

My daughter and her mom – my housemates – are traveling to Atlanta to be with family this Christmas, and I don’t blame them for a second. It’s always fun in Georgia over the holiday, and after a long Christmas season in the retail business back in Sioux Falls, both Nancy and Isabella need to get away. I understand that, and I want them to have fun.

I wish I could be with everyone, but I can’t. Here’s an open letter to my family in Atlanta this week, explaining why South Dakota – and my best friend Molly – has my heart this Christmas.

Hello everyone in the Peach State!

Merry Christmas to you all. I know Nancy and Isabella got there today, and there’s no doubt you have a lot planned for the rest of the day and tonight. There’s likely a pool tournament planned, and I’ll miss the opportunity to knock my brother out in the first round again.

But I can’t make it this year, and I hope you’ll understand. Some of you won’t get it, and I understand that, too.

You see, Molly needs me, in the worst way. At 14 years of age, my chocolate lab is truly showing her years. As it goes with labs as they get older, she struggles to walk, although that’s still her favorite thing to do with her dad.

She can’t really hear very well, and I’m convinced her eyesight is a fraction of what it once was. When I call her name, she often doesn’t respond. When I throw a cracker her way, she makes a valid attempt at catching it, but she’s off by several inches. It makes me chuckle, and I sit with her while she attempts to break the food down with the limited teeth she still has.

She still loves coming down to the basement at night where she lays next to me on the couch. It used to be a smooth, graceful excursion down the stairs where she’d orchestrate all 14 steps in about two leaps. Now, it’s a five-minute exercise to get down as she gingerly feels her way. Each morning, I carry her back up the stairs. That’s an exercise she simply can’t do any longer.

She gets scared at night…I think. About six months ago, she started waking us up at 3 or 4 a.m. each day. She’d lay on the couch, and just bark. So every morning, I got up at 3 or 4, carried her up the stairs, and let her out. I’d sit with her for a couple of hours before going back to bed. At around 5 or 6, the whimpers and barks began again. This time, it was Nancy’s turn to get up with her.

I’m not sure why that started. Again, I think she’s scared because she can’t hear, can’t see, and she’s alone. To try and remedy that situation, I started leaving the light on in the living room, and I turned ESPN on throughout the night. I swear that dog has seen more college football this fall and winter than Kirk Herbstreit. But it didn’t work. Even the replay of the Georgia / Alabama game couldn’t hold her attention. I was up at 3 a.m.

I’ve remedied that for now. She sleeps in my room, on the floor at the foot of the bed. That’s working for now, and she’s sleeping through the night again.

I realize this is probably her last Christmas. I doubt she’ll see the snow melt, and her days of shooting hoops with me in the spring at our neighborhood park are likely over. 

So, I have to be with her. She’s been with me through so much, I can’t imagine leaving her now when she literally needs me the most. Three years ago when I was recovering from surgery, she never, ever, left my side. I’m not leaving her now.

Trust me, I’ve exhausted every possible solution to try and get down there. I’ve thought about driving with her in the backseat, but I know she wouldn’t make it. I thought about flying, and putting her in a crate in the bottom of the plane. Again, she wouldn’t make that journey. I’ve thought about having someone stay at the house with her, but there’s only a couple I trust to do that, and they’re out-of-town this holiday.

So here I am, but again, it’s my honor to see her through her final Christmas. Someone asked me the other day if I’m regretful and if I had to do it all over again, would I make the same choice. 

What choice?

So Nancy, Isabella, Jeff, Denise, Brittni, Justin, Megan, Josiah, Haley, Deej, Carson, Beckett and Emery, I’ll see you soon. But this Christmas, I’m hanging with my best buddy. I hope you understand.

As I put the final period on this column, I’m in my basement, and Molly is sleeping on the couch. She’s content, peaceful, restful, with her dad. It’s my honor.