Our 13-Year-Old Golden Was Too Weak to Walk Off the Car — What He Did With His Last 30 Seconds on That Beach Changed How I See Goodbyes

Synopsis

We got Banjo in the summer of 2011, eight weeks old, from a family two towns over whose retriever had surprised them with a litter. Mark and I had been married three years. No kids yet. We brought home this ridiculous gold puppy with paws too big for him and named him Banjo because Mark said he had a face that looked like it was always about to play you a…