There’s a saying that I tried to find that said something about a man and his dog
but I couldn’t find it. But, missing quote notwithstanding, there IS something about a man (I interpret
that as “mankind” so it includes women, too) and his/their dog.
Sixteen years ago this
Christmas, we surprised our daughter with a darling black Pekingese puppy. She was absolutely adorable!
We named her, appropriately, Sassy. We also called her Sissy and Girly Girl but, mostly, we called
her Sassy. She quickly adapted to the ways of the Patterson tribe and was family – not just a pet.
Sassy was a great dog.
She went on family vacations with us – usually placing herself in my lap as I drove. She developed
an almost insatiable taste for low fat popcorn and chicken flavored doggy treats. Whenever the microwave
was turned on, she camped out right below it because she knew that she would be able to bark and get a few tasty morsels of
popcorn from us. Yeah, you could say we spoiled her rotten. I wouldn’t have had
it any other way.
Sassy didn’t bark much. She barked to go outside and, for some crazy
reason, she would bark whenever we came home from being out. Perhaps it was her way of blessing us out
for not taking her along. Who knows?
Sassy showed her undying devotion and love towards us while we were learning
the hard way just how lonely the nights of life could get. There was something incredibly comforting about
her lying next to us while our souls were troubled with the storms of life. I knew then that when it came
time for her to leave us, hopefully at a ripe old age in dog years, we were going to be there for her.
Well, two years ago
this September 2nd, we were there for her. After two months of debilitating and personality
changing seizures, it became more than apparent that our little girl – our dearest friend who had been through our darkest
times with us with unfailing love and loyalty, was about to leave us.
The vet, who was a very compassionate lady
who truly felt our pain, told us that we could prolong Sassy’s life but that the truly humane thing to do was euthanize
her. We somehow knew that going in but had hoped that there would be better news.
The vet left Rhonda,
Lacie and I with our little girl so that we could say our good-byes before the procedure started. We pet
her. We hugged and kissed her, never wanting the moments to end but we knew that they soon would.
Mercifully, before
the vet could inject Sassy with the serum that would end hear life, our little girl beat her to the punch and breathed her
last. That was it.
The vet left us in the room with our little girl and we all hugged her and
tearfully said our final good-byes. It hurt. The grief was almost more than we could handle.
In
the days and weeks after, we found ourselves looking for Sassy or thinking we saw her coming towards us as we going about
our routines. It was especially hard on us when we tried to microwave popcorn so we just didn’t have
any for a few weeks. We just didn’t want to NOT hear the bark we became so accustomed to hearing
during the popcorn ritual.
An odd thing happened two weeks to the day of her passing. We were sound
asleep and it was about an hour before my alarm was scheduled to go off to start my day. I was awakened out of a deep sleep
by the sound of Sassy barking to be let outside. No. Seriously. I did! It was so real that, before I realized
what I was doing, I was rolling out of bed to let her out. Realizing that I didn’t hear our little
girl, I just sat there on the edge of the bed and thought about how weird life – and our hearts and minds – can
be.
We
gradually have moved beyond our grief but not our memories. We still miss that little toot and everything
that she meant to us. We have since bought TWO (yes, I didn’t stutter. TWO) little Peke’s (were
we crazy or what?)! They’re named Daisy and Penny and they have their own distinct, remarkable and
crazy personalities. They can never replace our little Sassy but they do have their own special place in
our hearts and minds. We love them dearly and, yes, we’re spoiling them rotten. We have a house full
of dog toys to prove it.
While the little toots are ruling the roost, we often find ourselves wondering: What would
Sassy make of all of this? And then we hug and play with our two little heart-stealers and build new memories.
We still miss you,
Girly Girl!
