Alexander

Alexander was 10 years old this summer, and passed away very unexpectedly.
I received him as a gift from a then boyfriend in 1994, while I was in the navy and stationed in South Carolina. I got to pick him out at the ASCPA, he was the quietest most timid dog there, and I immediately feel in love with him. He was only a few months old. He was a lab-x, all black, except for a spot of white on his chest.


During his life he enhanced mine in a way only a true dog lover could understand. I am dealing with a tremendous amount of guilt regarding his death, because it occured only a few months after I divorced my husband and moved into an apartment. I feel I killed him from a broken heart.
Our first home was an apartment in Goose Creek (?), SC, we lived with a bunch other other sailors in a 2 bedroom apartment. Then we lived with my then boyfriend in a single wide in a really bad part of town in North Charleston, SC. Alexander made sure to keep the undesirables away, but shortly after moving there he made friends with another dog, aptly named Satan, who taught him how to wiggle out of his collar. He almost got hit by a car on Stall Road a few times.


Well, I was hardly getting by in SC after getting kicked outof the Navy, so we moved back to New York. We lived in my mom's house with her and her then boyfriend. It was an interesting living situation. Her boyfriend hated Alexander and liked to see him tied up. Oh, and I left my boyfriend in SC, because I was actuallt already married to the guy I just divorced this summer. Story longer than this, sorry...


I wound up reconciling with my husband, who was on leave from Alameda, CA, at my dad's farm in the Catskills. Alexander loved it up there. A few days later, the three of us packed what was left of the belongings I managed to save from SC and headed west.


We were in Alameda for a month and I found I was pregnant with our first child. Six weeks after Ryan was born, my husband had to go on a WestPac, and my dad and his new wife honeymooned from NY to CA, and then took me back to NY. I had to leave Alexander behind for a few months, but left him in the care of good friends. Well, unfortunatly, we had also aquired an ruly mutt right before the birth of Ry, and things got nuts.


My friends couldn't save the other dog, but went out on a limb to save Alexander from the clutches of Animal Control. In hind sight, we never should have taken responsibility for the other dog, and I shouldn't have traveled to NY either.


Three months after my husband's return we moved to Washington. Amonth there and we were pregnant again. At this house Alexander had a pretty decent side fenced in yard with plenty of grass.


Fast forward to six months after Paulie was born, my husband got out of the Navy and was going into the Coast Guard, so we moved out of Navy housing and into a motel for two weeks. Can you say hell?


Then, we packed two kids and Alexander, as well as our PC and some clothes into my Mustang. Yeah, no kidding...and headed to NY.


We lived with family for a while, then moved into Coast Guard housing, a 1500sq.ft. apartment on the 2nd story, once again hell. But we were close to family and my dad's 113 acre farm, so we spent as much time there as we could. Alexander enjoying "herding" dad's chickens, however dad and the chickens didn't like it too much.


Okay, so 6 weeks after child #3 is born we move back to WA. We bought a house and fenced the 1/3 acre of yard. We lived here as a family for three years, then I moved out...another long story.


My X had to go to Virginia for 6 weeks, so I stayed out the house with the kids. Everything seemed fine, then I went back to my apartment when my X got home. He was home for about a week, then one afternoon upon coming home from work, he found Alexander had died peacefully in his sleep.


Alexander was as comfortable sunning himself on the front lawn as he was curled up on our couch, or the foot of my bed as I slept. I miss him so much...