The Metacanine is no longer among us.

[stellarwind]

'Sup, Dog? by ~Dysschema on deviantART

Petel ''Blauzen'' Deutsch, 199X-2010*

* We have no idea how old she truly was.

What hasn't been said about the Metacanine before? That she thinks she's a cat, that she's probably undead (and definitely smells/falls apart accordingly), that she had the escape skills of Houdini and that she's an adorable pain in the arse but still adorable. That and other things.

But now that she no longer walks among us, I can do the typical things humans do and tell everyone her life story whether they know/care about it or not.

No one knows for certain when it was that the Metacanine first emerged into this planet, the exact circumstances of her birth or her heritage. A strange, smallish black-furred creature with a tendency for sprouting white hair around the muzzle, The Metacanine came into our lives on May 22nd, 2000. The family's old Golden Retriever, Paz, recently passed away - and my paternal grandmother (whom said Golden Retriever was the only constant companion of) decided that she needed a new dog. As her health was already fading at the time, though, she could no longer have a medium-large dog like the Golden Retriever was. Like us, she lived in an apartment building in a city and that means that she had to take the dog out on proper walks - and she could, at that point, no longer handle a dog that could pull her around easily.

This time we decided that we shall adopt a dog from a pound. This is where we found the Metacanine - hiding behind a curtain on a windowsill, no more no less.

They told us that she was two years old (though we think she was older, on a range between two and a half to maybe four), was saved from an abusive household, and was generally very low on the 'food chain' in the pound - she was attacked and bitten by other dogs in the pound before.

We all found her adorable, and in spite of her problematic-sounding past, we took her in, naming her "Petel", after the Hebrew word for Raspberry, on account of her being - as my mother (who came up with the name) said - "Small, black and sweet."

The first day with her was hell and a half - being so low on the food chain and having a background of abuse made her an adept survivor - were she an anthropomorphic fictional character she'd be the street-smart lovable rogue who sneaks around and steals food for survival, dreaming of a better future. Some kind of an Aladdin Dog. Unfortunately, this also gave her the escaping skills of Houdini, as I found out when, on the first day I ever took her for a walk, shortly after we got her home (or rather, my grandmother's place), the little bitch wiggled out of her collar and bolted off into the streets.

Thus began an epic hunt across the neighborhood, which terminated in a daring capture operation that involved cornering her underneath a parked car (she managed to get herself into a neighbor's yard and from there into their parking spaces) and pulling her out. Shortly after we gave her a bath (because god knows WHAT she managed to get herself smeared in but it sure as hell couldn't have been just dirt) and purchased one of those full-body harnesses for her. It was not a stylistic choice - it was a necessity.

After that first day, the Metacanine began warming up to us gradually - beginning with me and my grandmother (as we spent much time with her), but over time towards my mother as well. She always worshiped my dad, but that's because she's a dog. My dad seems to have this sort of dog-magnetic aura for some reason. Deities know how or why. They just like him. I mean, he's an awesome person and all, but they are dogs. They don't even fit.

But I digress.

We still had our fair share of problems with her - pretty much had to housetrain her all over again and teach her not to destroy random papers and attempt to invade trash cans (she'd do it even though we kept her fed and healthy. Probably either because she was used to it, or for old time's sake. Or just to fuck with our minds, wouldn't put it past her, she was a smart dog. She'd also very often get all obsessively lick-y or randomly go all submissive-display pose on us the moment anyone went near her. She also had some serious bad breath issues (which no vet we knew ever had any ideas regarding the cause of which), and also nearly -never- vocalized. We almost thought she was mute until one day she started barking at some other dog. It was surprising for us, considering ze Golden Retriever barked quite a bit.

Her other nickname, 'Blauzen' (pronounced 'blau' as in the German word for blue and 'tzen' as in the Final Fantasy 6 city - often with a mild German accent) came from me, when for some reason I developed a weird obsession with that word (imagine the WTF when I was reminded that there's a random Phantasy Star IV Monster named that. It's not a dog, though. Subliminal imprinting I guess?) and started applying it to her until she actually responded to it as a proper name. Hence her 'full' name, Petel 'Blauzen' Deutsch (though she came to respond - and be referred to by many other variants of either her first name or her 'middle' name.)

Over the years, she mellowed out considerably - still showing bursts of massive wit as well as bouts of utter stupidity (we often used to roffle at how can such a smart dog be so frigging dumb sometimes) as well as some rather amusing behaviours (such as a weird ability of walking on her hind-legs for quite a long duration of time - something me and my mother relentlessly abused when we went to walk her. We made her dance to Celtic music by dangling the leash in front of her. XD) But on the whole, even with her issues, we loved her. And she was ridiculously adorable.

As my grandmother's health deteriorated further, she spent more and more time with us - in our house - than at my grandmother's, until at last my grandmother could not care for her at all anymore and she moved to our care permanently.

As the years passed she seemed to lose more and more of her energy, opting often to curl up on a blanket in a small closed up room and sleep. She seemed to like cloistering herself like that. Recently - a few months back, she's lost control over her bladder and would often produce enough urine to make her very presence unbreathable and the room she lived in a gas-mask compulsive zone (made worse by said room being the house's main workroom/computer room) - no matter how much we washed her and her blankets, she'd simply produce more toxic chemicals.

And so we've made the decision to put her down because it simply got impossible.

On February 22nd, 2010, Petel "Blauzen" Deutsch, the Metacanine, breathed her last breaths in this bioshell - or, if she was indeed undead all along as we've come to secretly assume, was permanently disembodied. If there's some form of spiritual nexus she's supposed to return to after her death, we wish her luck in her new journeys. If there isn't, then, well, I could say anything I want and she wouldn't care, being dead and all.

I guess that all I can say is this...


~ Rest in peace, you adorable undead freak, you.

Comments

[maniackatie.livejournal.com]

*Hugs* :(

I know how much you and your family loved her, and thanks for sharing the stories. I know she'll be missed... Rest in peace, you adorable fuzzball.

[sike-saner.livejournal.com]

Oh man... ;-; *hugs*

It's clear from reading this that she was cared about very much during her time here and that she will continue to be cared about here after it. To you and your family: thank you for rescuing her from a hard life and giving her a better one.


Rest in peace, little one.

[kapostrophe.livejournal.com]

Trying to sound like you aren't "Human" in times like this is just silly, as sike_saner stated, it's clear from reading your post you loved her and always will.

It's always hard when we lose a pet because they're more than just that; they're a part of our lives. Best wishes to you and your family during this hard time.