The Final Farewell
Part 1

By "TV Dave" Neff

Half an hour later, Doctor Krank was walking down the hall and spied Chris still sitting in the almost empty waiting room, holding Alan in his arms. Alan had cried himself to sleep and Chris had that thousand-yard stare, oblivious to all that was going on around him. The doctor had seen this more times than he cared to remember, a young husband or wife in shock after being told of the death of their spouse or loved one. He walked up to Chris and gently put a paw on his shoulder.

"Mister Foxx!!" Then he shook it gently, "Mister Foxx!!" Chris blinked and looked around, then looked up at the doctor, "Mister Foxx, would you please come with me to my office? I have some forms I have to give you, and you need to pick up your wife's personel effects as well."

"Ummm, OK," said Chris in a small faraway voice. The doctor then took him by the arm and helped him up leading him down the hall to the administration area. Once inside the office he led Chris to a chair near his desk, sat him down, then went to his own side of the desk and sat down, starting to go through papers in a file folder.
Chris just sat there quietly holding his sleeping son and nuzzling the top of his head with his muzzle, the doctor looked up and tried to get Chris' attention, "Mr. Foxx!!! Mr. Foxx!! Can you hear me, Mr. Foxx?!"
The third time sort of brought Chris back to reality, he looked over to the doctor, and tears welling in his eyes, trembling, he could ask the one question that had been running through his mind for the past half hour. "WHY?!!!! Why doc?! Why did she have to die? Whyyyyy?" His voice trailed away as he lowered his head and started sobbing louder.
Doctor Krank looked down for a moment at the papers on his desk, then stood up, moved his chair over to where Chris was, sat down next to him, put his paw on Chris' shoulder and in his best fatherly manner said, "Chris… four times this week someone sat in that chair, and asked me that same question. "Why did my mother die?" or husband, or son, or brother. And it's a question I can't answer sometimes. Yes, I'm a doctor, I'm trained to save lives and I try to do it as best as I can, but the body is a funny thing, we can have a person come into the ER all torn up and missing body parts; we patch them up and they live. Then someone may come in with a bump on the head and they die." Doctor Krank paused for a moment as Chris looked at him. He then went on… "As for your wife, the trauma to her body was just too great; like I told you when you came in, she was lucky to have survived the accident for that long; I am so sorry son, but there was nothing we could do."

Chris just looked at the doctor and still not fully understanding what he was being told said in a whisper, "I want my wife… I want my Sabrina. Alan wants his mommy. We need to take her home."

Doctor Krank breathed a heavy sigh, reached over, ran a paw over Alan's head and ruffed his hair as he slept, then asked Chris if there was anyone he could call, a friend, a family member, anyone.
Chris thought for a moment before replying, "I don't know anyone here in Grove City but I can call Dexter."

"Give me his number," the doctor said," I'll call him."

Dexter's head had just hit the pillow, and he gave the clock on the night stand one last look before turning off the light, good!!! 9:15pm, an early night he thought, he switched off the lamp, turned to Angel to kiss her goodnight and tried to snuggle into his pillow when…

Ringggggggggg!!! It made them both jump, Dex grumbled to himself and fumbled to turn the lamp back on, and grabbed the phone, "Hello!" he said, not sounding too happy.

"Is this Dexter Collie? asked the voice at the other end of the line.
"Yes it is." said Dexter, "and who is this calling at this time of night?"

Doctor Krank went on to identify himself and inform Dexter that Chris and Alan were there at the hospital. Dexter's first thought was Chris and Alan were hurt. "What's wrong, are they ok!" Dexter shouted into the phone, Doctor Krank told him they were ok but had come there because Sabrina had been in a bad auto accident, and had been brought there to the ER.

"OH MY GOD!!! Is she ok?"

Angel hearing just one side of the conversation sat up and said," Dex! Who is it? Who's hurt?"

Dexter raised his free paw to his muzzle and went Shhhhhhhh! Trying to hear what the doctor was saying, Doctor Krank went on to say that Sabrina's injuries were too severe and that she had passed away a little over an hour ago. Dexter's face went white, and he dropped the phone, scrambling to pick it up he said, "Doc, could you hold on for a moment?" and then held the phone to his chest and with tears in his eyes, he turned to Angel and told her what had just transpired on the phone.

"NOOOOOO!" she cried, "that poor boy, and his son, what are they going to do?!!!"
"Well let me finish." Dexter said, as he brought phone, "Sorry Doc, but I had to talk to the wife."

Dexter and the doctor talked for another five minutes, then he hung up the telephone and sat there for a moment to let it all sink in, he then looked over to angel who was sobbing into her pillow and he reached over and brushed the tears off of her cheek.

"Dear" he said, "there's something we need to do. Go get the boys up and tell them to get dressed. The doctor asked if we would come over to Grove City to get Chris and Alan and drive them home, so while you're doing that, I need to make another call."

"To who?" Angel asked.

"I need to call Lester Otter, the doctor asked if I would call a funeral home to help Chris make arrangements for Sabrina."

Angel reached over to Dexter and took his paw in hers, pulled him over to her and kissed him on the cheek, saying, "Let's go get Chris and Alan." With that she got out of bed to get the boys up and ready.

Dexter reached over to the nightstand for the phone book, fanned through the pages till he found the number of the Otter Family Funeral Home and made the call.

End of Part 1