a fine canine
Annie, the beloved dog of Jeanie and Carla, had to be put down this week.
I have a short list of truly exceptional dogs I have known and she was squarely, solidly, cheerfully on that list.
You good girl with your big, good heart. I miss you already.
[PS I don’t want condolences, I want to hear about your favorite animals that have graced your life.]
Hey, it looks like Annie got one last laugh before moving on… she’s giving the finger with her front right paw if I’m not mistaken. She has the demeanor of a trickster, which is always good. Good Girl.
Oh, I forgot to share a story of my beloved miniature dachshund, Gussie, which is short for Gustavian Von Svedenhaut. I used masking tape to attach her tail to her back leg so she’d pull her own tail when she walked. I was 12 and not very smart or nice, but she was game for several steps then just sat down on the tri-color shag (oranges/browns) and would go no further. She was always smarter and nicer than any of us in her family. If you said “ring the doorbell, Gussie” she’d go step on that twangy door-stop thingy on the back of the door over and over making it go “doing, doing”. She lived to be sweet 16 and had a grey muzzle.
This is the second time I have burst into tears today…I am going to need a minute…
I had a wonderful mixed breed dog that we got as a puppy when I was about ten years old. We named her Mindy because the show “Mork & Mindy” was on the night we got her. She was a poodle/cocker mix and was all black and shiny. Well, we had her for about four years and then my parents went and got divorced. I supported the divorce, but it did force us out of our four bedroom custom built tri-level home and into a small three bedroom trailer. And unfortunately the trailer park did not allow dogs!
So, my grandparents reluctantly agreed to take Mindy. They had sworn off dogs once their last one passed away, but they could not bear to see their grandchildren upset by this loss. Even though we did not see her everyday (they lived in Kansas and we were in Iowa) it was a comfort to know where she was and that she was very happy.
I got to live with Mindy again when I moved out to California at age 19. My grandparents had moved from Kansas to Cali a few years before. Mindy had aged, but she was the apple of my grandparent’s eyes. No other dog had been allowed to get on the furniture. No other dog had been given free reign of the house. And no other dog was allowed to sleep in bed with grandma and grandpa. But Mindy was allowed all of those things. She was considered more person than dog. She had grooming that came to the house once a month for a pampering session like no other!
Well, I moved away when Mindy was about 13 years old and the next year the Northridge quake happened and Mindy was one of its unmentioned tragic victims. She was a strong dog and it took an earthquake to bring her down.
It was my relationship with her that inspired me to get my own dog a few years ago and now I am greeted at home by the lovable Dixie!
Thanks for the lovely notes so far! Dixie is definitely on my list of most-lovable doggies, too!