Good-bye and Hello

Back in December, just exactly 2 weeks before Christmas we had to say good-bye to our dear, sweet, princess Lady.  She was so smart and dainty and proper and sweet.  She lived to the ripe old age of 110 (17 ½ people years) and just couldn’t go any further.  My son was 3 when we got her – they grew up together and were such awesome friends. 

She didn’t have the word “quit” in her.  Her favorite game of Frisbee would go until we got tired of throwing it.  No matter how exhausted she may have been, if you threw it she would chase it – she might not bring it back right away, but she would chase it. Even just last summer when she was 110 years old mostly completely blind and deaf, she went camping and hiking with us. We took her on easy trails, but she did a 3 km hike with us.  Her favorite place to be was anywhere we were. 

1997

2014

She was such a beautiful girl and even with this little bit of time between when we said good-bye and now, I cannot talk about her without tearing up.  She was my faithful companion and bestest best friend for so long.  I miss her still so, so much. I treasure her memory and she will always hold a very special place in my heart.  

Good-bye dear sweet Lady.  You lived well and blessed our lives for being a part of it.

And now to “Hello”.

The house was just too empty without my Lady-love. Too quiet, too hard to walk into everyday coming home from work and not having her wagging her tail to greet me.  We weren’t planning on

getting another dog until after November of this year.  I suppose that we would have gotten used to our quiet house, eventually, but the boy (who also left the nest this past year) adopted a dog, as did his uncle.  We felt a little left out of all the doggy action.  We are definitely dog people and couldn't bear the thought of going camping this summer without one.

I went looking on the AARCS website – you know – just to see what they had.  Fell in love with the

looks of one dog after another only to be told they were already spoken for.  I kept coming up on this picture and figured he would be gone quickly too because he is just so darned cute!  Turned out he was meant to be ours.  We decided to meet him and fell in love immediately.  They told us that he was likely a Rottweiler/German Sheppard cross with maybe some Collie thrown in.  We called him Rascal.  I picked the name just based on this picture before I even met him.  Believe me it suits him to a T.

That was January 10^th.  It is now March 25 and we have laughed hard every single day since we got him.  He is a clown and so very funny.  His antics would be the stuff legends were made of, if only we could actually capture them on video.  He has no sense of space around him so falls off the couch at least once a day.  He leaps straight into the air whenever I put on my jacket or sweater because he wants to either go for a walk or car ride.  He loves being with his people so much that he gets mad when we even close a door on him (like the bathroom) but we can’t
take him into the bathroom when we have a bath or shower because he jumps right in with us, he loves water so much.  Can’t wait for summer for him to be able to go swimming.  He is sassy and “talks back” if I tell him to stop doing something that he is doing.

I have to get up early just to give him some cuddle time every morning because he is the snuggliest pup I have ever met. 

We did a DNA test on him and it turns out that they got 2 of the 5 breeds that make him who he is

right.  He is:  Border Collie/Collie/Rottweiler/Boxer and Labrador Retriever.  He gets his looks from the first 3.  His personality is 100% Boxer and the Lab explains his relationship with water.  He also part Moose – he is soooo clumsy.  Right now I have to try to keep him still for 3 weeks because he has an injury to his elbow causing him to limp.  I can’t even take him for a walk, but can’t stop him from running laps around the yard.

While I still miss my girl so much, this new love has equally captivated my heart and I am sure that we will have so many fantastic years together.