My Partner is Delight

My Partner is Delight
Heading into the great unknown

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Peaches 3/94 - 5/24/08

We lost a dear member of our family today.

Our little dog Peaches died today to a tragic accident. It wasn’t the way we thought she would leave us but it was mercifully quick. She was 14 years old.

When Josh and Katy were little we had little money. One of the things we used to do was to go to the humane society and visit the puppies and kitties. It was a lot of fun and all it cost was a little bit of gas money. One day when Eli was about a year old we were living in a place where we could have a dog, so for my birthday I asked if we could take the kids to see the puppies.

At the shelter there was mama dog and 3 or four puppies. They were some sort of Terrier and Chihuahua mix. One of them had a curly little tail, four white feet and a faint white spot on the forehead. We took her home and named her “Peaches” because her fur was the color of a ripe peach.

Peaches grew up with the kids. She has been to Ohio and Kansas and Idaho. She has been camping and sledding and to slumber parties. Anywhere a dog could go we took her. She has been dressed up and tolerated nail polish and lipstick with grace.

When she was younger she loved to fetch her stuffed bunny and chase squirrels and cats. She knew which cats didn’t belong to her, and she protected her yard from all of the others.

Peaches didn’t know very many “real” dog tricks, except how to get us to give her a treat for not doing anything at all. Sometimes Katy could get her to sit by telling her “down” but that was the exception. She had us trained pretty well. She knew if she waited long enough we would give up and toss her the treat. She could catch treats in her mouth pretty well. Sometimes we could get her to howl a raspy voiceless howl. It was pretty funny and we tried to get her to say, ‘Mama’ too.

As she aged she learned to burrow under blankets to keep warm, and how to find the spots on the floor that were warmed by the sun. She slept a lot, her hearing left and she was beginning to go blind. Cancerous tumors began to grow on her belly. Two years ago we had most of them removed, but they grew back. Last summer we allowed the kids to get a puppy thinking Peaches’ time was short, but she rallied and fooled us all.

We already miss you so very much little “Piece a Poo”. We will always carry your memory in our hearts. We thank God for the many years that you were a part of our family.

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