Every Song Sung to a Dog
Published on: Apr 20, 2025Filed under: Scratch
In April 2015, Fred Thomas put out “All Are Saved,” his 8th solo album, but his first on a Polyvinyl, and so his largest solo album to date. In an album that that covers a lot of Fred's personal history and the meandering way people deal with the loss of relationships, the album starts[1] and ends with songs about losing a dog.
A month prior, in March of 2015, I adopted Baxter a pit-boxer mutt just shy of four months old. At the time, I was going through something of a rebuild, and now was making enough money to comfortably take on the responsibility of a dog.
Two weeks ago, that Fred Thomas record turned ten. And on Wednesday of last week, after a few days of pain from what we suspect was a rapid and aggressive cancer, I had to put my Baxter down. I won’t go into detail mourning a dog you probably never met on a website that nobody really reads, but I will share the story that encapsulated Baxter’s personality even when he was still alive.
It was a late Christmas at my sister’s house. She’s got three boys and a passed on our family’s love of Star Wars. This combination lead to myself and my nephews engaged in a battle with toy light sabers. Until Baxter decided that this was too dangerous. He got between us, forming a physical barrier between my nephews - early teens at the eldest - and myself. 6’5 and late 30s, and the person who had fed him twice a day his entire life.
He growled at me, giving me a warning that he was protecting the boys he had literally just met that day.
Baxter always was a good boy.
