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Doug Hagmann's Icon Dog King Passes


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In today's Hagmann & Hagmann Report, Doug announced the passing of the show's Icon, King, a German Shepard that passed away from Cancer. Written as only Doug can write, it's a real tear jerker.

You can read the entire article here: http://www.hagmannandhagmann.com/archives/853 , or summary is posted below.

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It was shortly after the conference that we learned that King was not just playing his position hurt, but playing the game injured. We learned that he had cancer that metastasized from his spleen throughout his entire body, especially his lungs. This, combined with the pain of his severe arthritis, should have sidelined him from his duties. According to the treating veterinarian, King only had a few weeks at most to live. Despite this dire diagnosis, King played through with a surreal vigor, on a mission where every minute counted. He outlived the doctor’s timeline with a steel will. Nonetheless, his physical problems progressed.

For the last few months, King had trouble climbing the stairs to our bedroom. Because of his needs, the sofa in our family room became my nighttime bed, where I could be near King and tend to him during the night. The last few weeks, we seemed to fall into a particular routine, where he would wake me up about five o’clock in the morning and we’d take a walk outside, although the walks became shorter as his breathing became more labored. He’d carry one of the nearly 800 baseballs he found over the years in his mouth as it seemed to help him breathe. The last few morning walks, though, he left the ball for me to carry, but he always made sure I had it. He wanted to maintain that sense of normalcy, perhaps.

This past Saturday morning, King took a dramatic turn for the worse. When he did not wake me for his walk, my internal body clock jolted me from the couch. I sprung up to find him standing at the door with a knowing, distant look in his eyes. I quietly called his name. Our eyes locked only momentarily, but he knew… and I knew.

It was into the afternoon that I, my wife and stepson spent our last precious moments with him. Reluctantly, my stepson left for a business engagement, leaving him in our care. It was an hour later and with a sudden burst of energy combined with confusion, and most certainly the anticipation of his own mortality, King walked down a nearby staircase, where he laid at the foot of the steps knowing that he would be unable to climb them back to the top. Flanked and being comforted by me and my wife, right there at the landing, King placed his head on the bottom stair and took two final breaths. His body then became limp as the ravages of his cancer no longer held its grip. For the first time in weeks, King looked at peace.

It was there that we sat with him for a long while, holding vigil, as our stream of tears dampened his coarse coat. We carefully moved his head from the step and gently placed it on his front paws, giving the almost surreal appearance that he would awaken and jump up from a deep slumber.

Joe immediately came when summoned. Together, we carefully wrapped and gently lifted and carried his lifeless body into the very van in which he had ridden so many times since joining our family. This time, it was his final ride to his place of interment. He will be buried near the top of a bluff overlooking many other pets from countless other families, still keeping watch and blazing the way for others into eternity. A watchman’s plaque is being made especially for him, engraved in granite exactly as it appears in our logo.

Right at five o’clock Sunday morning, I left the house carrying a leash and a baseball, and walked to King’s most favorite area at the nearby park we would visit. I hung his leash on his favorite tree, and placed the ball in a large, deep knot inside its trunk. As I sat against the tree, the light mist of pre-dawn rain struck my face, covering the tears of emptiness. It was at that moment I heard the words of Coach Daubenmire. “Sure, it hurts. But get back in the game. We’ve got work to do, and it’s what King would not only want, but expect.”

By Douglas J. Hagmann

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