Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Everybody saw this coming.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

The revolution will be supervised.

Republicans in disarray!

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

In my day, never was longer.

You cannot shame the shameless.

You are here: Home / Absent Friends / RIP, Nate Dogg

Reader Interactions

66Comments

  3. 3.

    SectionH

    So so sorry, ABL.

    there’s this trade-off about loving and losing.

    Fuck, empathic suckers gotta be empathetic. And I’m not talking about Cole.

  4. 4.

    Suzanne

    Hugs to you, ABL. You did the best and hardest thing by not letting him suffer. It proves that you loved him the most when he needed it the most. I hope your Lilly brings you comfort tonight.

  5. 5.

    Alison

    I don’t want to be weird, but I don’t think he’s actually passed yet, unless he just did? The post she wrote is a sort of…pre-eulogy. He’s very sick and likely not long left, but…last I saw still holding on…

  12. 12.

    The Other Chuck

    I didn’t feel anything, since I don’t know ABL and didn’t even know she had a dog. Then I read her post and came to the end.

    “If you have to go, I’m ready to let you go, but if you could stay a little longer, I would be eternally grateful.”

    And I think to how I felt about my cat Max, who was wasting away in front of me. How I thought I wanted him to hold on another day, because maybe he’ll pull through … then I saw how much he was suffering, and then when he went to sleep, I put him in his bed, said goodbye, and hoped he’d be gone by morning. And he was. Good old Max, finally came when you were called for once.

    Funny how that is, takes the little creatures to make us more human.

  13. 13.

    eemom

    I’m so sorry.

    Been through it myself 2 months ago. Raw and awful is exactly right, Cole.

    I’ll ask again of the believers: why would God make his finest creatures have such short lives?

  16. 16.

    Ash Can

    Oh dear. I’m so sorry to hear this. I’ll never forget the first picture of Nate Dogg that ABL posted here, when she was introducing herself as a new FPer. It was of her and Nate Dogg, mugging for the camera together, and it was just classic. Deepest sympathies to ABL.

  20. 20.

    Omnes Omnibus

    My cocker’s kidneys failed when he was twelve. I was about to start my senior your in college. He had been at the vet’s for a couple days and I visited him for a couple of hours each day as they ran IVs into him. The day he died, I knew it was likely, but I had hopes – I don’t surrender them easily – but I told my parents before I left for my 2d shift job that if the vet called and said it was hopeless that I was okay with doing what had to be done. I came home from work on my motorcycle after 2am and saw that the lights were still on. I almost gave the bike some gas and rode on, but I knew my dad was sitting up to tell me. They had gotten a call from the vet and and had given the okay. Dad took him up to out cabin and buried him in a place he had loved and then Dad sat and waited for me to come home. It is coming up on 30 years since then and thinking about can still make me tear up. All you can do is love the little guys and do what is best for them.

    TL;DR: My condolences, ABL.

  22. 22.

    CaseyL

    Losing the first animal you get by yourself, and raise by yourself, and make all the decisions for by yourself, is additionally heartbreaking because it’s the first, and the pain is new, and because so much of your life is bound up in that critter.

    ABL, my condolences. You gave Nate Dogg a terrific life.

  23. 23.

    TaMara (BHF)

    I posted over there, but here I’ll just add, I’m amazed at how much the love and sympathy of cyber friends really helps. So lets just pour it on for her. It always hard to lose a furry friend, but something about that first one that cuts the deepest.

  24. 24.

    wmd

    You need to let your new dog help you grieve Imani. I’m sure that’s happening, be open to that love.

  25. 25.

    xaneroxane

    Comforting love to you. This night never did seem quite right, and now I see why. Love, evermore love to you at this time of transition… Namaste.

  27. 27.

    Comrade Mary

    It’s the hardest decision but the right decision to let your pet go as gently as you can when the time comes. Nate Dogg was a good dog and he was lucky to have you, Imani.

  28. 28.

    ruemara

    Aww, damn. Goodbye, Nate. Tell all those we’ve loved and cared for we said hi. Sorry, Imani.

  29. 29.

    RandomMonster

    We make these friends who we out-live, and it’s never easy!

    Having been through a few of these partings, so I can speak with a little experience.

    We could reverse it by only adopting, say, young parrots who would out-live us. But then as we get sick we would be worried about how those friends would live without us…and that’s something I don’t want to bear. I would rather choose to be the guardian of a cat or dog, secure in the knowledge that I will probably be able to be a comfort and rational friend to my feline/canine friend when he/she is in trouble.

    None of this makes the pain of losing a companion any easier.

  31. 31.

    seaboogie

    Dear Imani,

    Dog love is pure, uncomplicated and unconditional love. Sending you a big hug from Nate Dogg and all the BJ doggies (including mine) in doggie heaven, where they are variously napping, eating, chewing on toys and wrassling with each other, and never, ever have to take another bath! And we are as large in their hearts as they are in ours….

  35. 35.

    TriassicSands

    It’s not fair. Scientists are working on extending human life, when what we need are longer lives for our dogs and cats.
    Yet, no matter when they leave us, it would always be too soon.

    My sincere condolences, Imani. Nate Dogg was lucky you found each other and I’m sure he knew it.

  36. 36.

    BubbaDave

    Deepest sympathy, ABL. They go too soon, and leave paw prints all over our hearts on the way out. We do all we can for them, and at the end all too often we have to guess at the decision they would tell us to make, and then somehow we open our hearts to let the next one move in and start leaving paw prints all over again.

  37. 37.

    Debbie(aussie)

    ABL
    my thoughts and wishes for you come from afar
    but are filled with honest love & caring,
    hug your new puppy, share your memories of Nate
    loud and proud, your friends wont mind the sharing
    And will listen anyhow for Nate now rests in peace

    My deepest sympathy
    Debbie

  38. 38.

    Yatsuno

    Aww man. When I left this morning Nate Dogg was hanging in there. This bites and I hope Imani finds peace as he heads over the Rainbow Bridge.

  39. 39.

    am

    “The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever”

    Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five (Vonnegut)

    Condolences on your loss.

  42. 42.

    Exurban Mom

    So very, very sorry for your loss. Thinking of you today and hoping you can know that you did what was best for your pup.

  43. 43.

    Poopyman

    Hugs, Imani. You gave him his life and he gave you himself. It’s all you two could ask for, isn’t it?

  46. 46.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    ABL, I’m so sorry to hear about Nate’s passing. Your description of the butt wag reminds me of our departed Wendy(also a Cocker). Our current Cocker is more of a tail wager, but it her tail always is wagging.

  49. 49.

    Juju

    I couldnt get this to publish at your site, ABL.

    My beautiful golden mix died last August. This will not be the best day of your life, but you will get through it. If you are going to your vet, please take a friend with if you don’t think you can handle the drive home. When I had to make that decision for Bizzy the vet explained everything and let us wait until we could handle things. I have been through this before, so it was not all completely new. Your vet will help you through this. The last thing my dog saw was my face, and I am happy that it was that way. Just remember, Nate Dogg loved every minute with you. My thoughts are with you and I send long distance hugs.

    Grieve not,
    but laugh and talk of me as if I were beside you… 
    I loved you so… 
    twas heaven here with you.

    ~Ilsa Paschal Richardson 

  51. 51.

    Peregrinus

    @eemom:

    Because life is supposed to be where you learn to be kind, and loving, and all those other virtues, and unlike us knuckleheads who can be here seventy years and have no idea what those words even mean, those creatures come into the world ready to teach us.

  53. 53.

    Jamie

    Sorry, ABL. Be well.

    I lost my cat Freid about a year ago and haven’t been ready to take on another. A good pet beats people any day.

  54. 54.

    fidelio

    Even Lord Byron, jerk though he frequently was, knew the score when it came to pets:

    Near this Spot
    are deposited the Remains of one
    who possessed Beauty without Vanity,
    Strength without Insolence,
    Courage without Ferosity,
    and all the virtues of Man without his Vices.

    This praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery
    if inscribed over human Ashes,
    is but a just tribute to the Memory of
    BOATSWAIN, a DOG,

    I’m sorry, ABL.

  55. 55.

    Jacquie

    So, so, so sorry. No matter how many animal companions you’ve loved and lost, it never gets any easier. Virtual hugs to you, Imani. RIP Nate Dogg.

  58. 58.

    MomSense

    Back on to say that I read ABL’s tribute to Nate Dogg and I just feel heartsick. I’m going through what is hopefully a very, very, very slow period of watching my best friend decline. Last night he stole my son’s chicken and rice and moved faster than I have seen in a long time and I found myself saying “good boy” and rewarding him while my son looked at me like “Mom, your loyalty is supposed to be with me”. We just love our puppies unconditionally and I think loving like that makes us better people. But damn it hurts like hell to lose them.

    So thank you, ABL for sharing Nate Dogg with us. And I know I don’t have the right words to say to help you through this but I hope it is some comfort to know that we are all here with you in support.

  60. 60.

    dugglebogey

    Feeling bad for someone who’s lost a pet, even though you never met them or their pet, is a superpower.

    It’s called “empathy,” and not enough people have it.

    RIP Nate Dogg. Sympathy to ABL. Loss sucks.

  61. 61.

    Gina Storts Szmulewicz

    My deepest sympathies to you. The only bad part of loving dogs is the short time we have with them. Nate Dogg was lucky to have you, and you were blessed to have him in your life.

  62. 62.

    Gina Storts Szmulewicz

    My deepest sympathies to you. The only bad part of loving dogs is the short time we have with them. Nate Dogg was lucky to have you, and you were blessed to have him in your life.

  63. 63.

    GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)

    Nate Dog took a walk this morning and made copious urine, per Imani’s facebook page.

    The news of his death has been greatly exaggerated (though he is certainly a sick pupper)

  64. 64.

    bystander

    @poptartacus:

    When the only mercy is one a veterinarian can deliver…
    And, when I sit on the floor with that soon to be departed part of my heart in my arms…
    And, the vet looks to me to ask, Now?
    Just before I nod…
    Because I’m incapable of saying, Yes…
    I whisper into that furry ear…
    Please save a space for me.

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