Goodbye to a great dog

Our dog, Red, died yesterday at 14 years old. He was 6 months old when we rescued (stole) him from his abusive owners. He looked like his mom, who was a golden retriever, but had jaws like his pit bull dad. The people we took him from had the whole litter of puppies because they owned the dad and he escaped from their house and attacked the mom's owner to get to the mom. They would give the puppies alcohol and drugs and laugh when they staggered around and acted stupid, just like them. They didn't miss him for 2 weeks-and didn't care that he was gone. He was really sweet and loved the cats to pieces. They knew he would protect them from things in the woods that wanted to eat cats. He did accidentally kill a kitten once and you knew by the look on his face he was sooo soorry. He was about 8 months old then and just played with it too rough. When an angry me got out there and told him that he had killed it, I think he understood-he knew he messed up-his little buddy wasn't moving and Mom was scolding him. He was a great watchdog and if you were crazy enough to come the drive and get out of the car without one of us tellng him it was ok, he would snarl at you. He liked basic dog stuff, riding in the car, and getting treats. He also liked Skits-that was his cat. They would pile up together in the winter. Skits was crying all morning yesterday-even before Red died. I'm conviced he knew what was happening with his old friend. We buried him in his favorite spot in the yard and Skits was there, too. So rest well, my friend-you were the best dog ever. I'm gonna miss you.