Tribute to Tango

Tango is our 16+ year old Belgian Tervuren who came to live on our farm 15 years ago, one month before our first Haflinger joined us and three months before our first child was born. As a shepherd dog, she enjoyed life on the farm, primarily watching after the cats who kept her belly warm at night, and befriending our ducks and chickens. She never had too much dealings with the Haflingers as they wouldn't put up with her in their space, but she never missed a farrier session when she'd rush in, grab a clipping and make her getaway.

My favorite Tango memory of many is finding her curled up fast asleep in the early morning on our front porch with the cat curled up at her belly and our rooster and hen snoozing next to her, keeping her back warm. This dog knew how to keep warm in the night and seemed to know how to communicate with the other animals to make sure it happened.

Tango loved our children as they were each added to our family, and when we bought our new Tervuren, Makai, last year, to prepare ourselves for the inevitable loss of our ancient Tango, she welcomed him wholeheartedly as well, watching all his fetch and play from her perch in the grass and sometimes leading him off to explore places she shouldn't have.

Tango has been slowly failing over the last year, arthritic and deaf, with cataracts and occasional lapses of memory. But she could always manage to get up in the morning and get the kinks out, walk with me out to get the newspaper, eat a hearty breakfast, and then sleep the morning and the afternoon away in her favorite spots outside. This morning she settled into her spot and was still there when we got back home 9 hours later. She was unable to stand or walk on her own and whimpered as she lay on the grass.

We called the vet, a brand new gal fresh out of school, who had never done an "at home" euthanasia before, and especially not in the dark with flashlights. She was willing, thankfully, to come out as trying to move Tango to the vet clinic would have been a terrible indignity and
trauma. After a number of tries, the vet found a vein and Tango passed peacefully away to heaven.