A Requiem for Barney

The three-bedroom house sits on a quiet street in a quiet Florida community.

The fenced-in backyard is lined with lemon and orange trees.

The well-manicured backyard is covered in holes, dug up by the Doberman

pincher lying in the middle of the yard, his head tilted back watching the

squirrels run along the electric wires and the top of the fence around the yard.

One of the squirrels climbs down the fence, it stares at the dog, waiting to

be noticed. The Doberman jumps up barking excitedly and runs toward the

chattering rodent, the squirrel waits until the last second, then he scrambles

up the fence and glares at the dog, cursing at him.

The dog gets up to resume the game, but a sudden pain in his gut compels

him to go to the sliding door, he hits the glass hard enough to almost shake

it off its track. He barks, then he tries to bark again, but he throws up part of

the last bit of food he ate before he came outside.

He whines as he turns to the door, “ Come on Barney, It’s hot out here.”

One of his dads, the younger one, stands out of his way as he runs into the

house, and straight to his bowl of food.

He wolfs the food down like he’s starving, but he just ate an hour ago. He

gulps down some water, then he heads to his nap spot in the living room,

where he throws up on his dad’s new carpet again.

“ Damn it, Barney. “ His dad yells, causing Barney to whine in sadness and

shame. “ You’ve ruined the carpet, what am I going to do with you?”

The two humans talk among themselves, his dad and his dad’s brother-

in-law. He doesn’t understand why the two humans are crying, he hasn’t

seen them cry since mom died. They eat dinner and clean up the kitchen,

it’s almost time for his other dad to get up to go to his night-shift job.

The three dads talk quietly, Barney has his ears up. He knows they are

talking about him, and he understands whatever they are saying isn’t good,

but he is too sick to care.

“ Let’s go, Barney.” His dad says the next morning, but Barney isn’t excited

like he usually is. He stands up and gets sick on the carpet, but his dad

doesn’t yell. He chokes back a sob. “ Come on Barney, let's go.” The three of

them slowly head outside and get in the van; he used to get so excited when

he went on trips. he would bark incessantly causing his family to yell at

him, but not today. He lies on the backseat and sleeps until his dad parks

the van at the bad place.

“ Come on Barney.” His dad says, not bothering to hide his tears. Both his dads

are sobbing when they enter the bad place. His dad, the dad he has known

the longest, fills out the paperwork, and hands the woman a card.

The three of them head to a room in the back, where a man in a white coat

picks him up and sits him on a table, Barney barely feels the needle from the

I.V. He listens as both his dad's sob, but soon the pain is slowly fading away.

His dads stand beside the table, petting him, and telling him how much they

love him, and how he was a good dog.

“ I was a very good dog.” Barney thinks, as he slowly falls asleep.