June 26, 2019A Final Farewell

I read an article once that stated healthy people need to get at least 10 or more good, hard belly laughs everyday. After 16 years of living and laughing daily with my sweet, funny Chloe, I should be in excellent health!

• Chloe snored! Loudly!! But, funny snoring, not annoying snoring! It never lasted very long.

• Chloe would dance and leap and spin in circles if she ever saw a leash or car keys, or heard “walk” or “ride”. And she wouldn’t pay attention to how close to furniture or a wall she was, or if she was under a table. Knocked herself half silly lots of times! And if you weren’t going to take her for a walk or ride, you’d better be spelling those words.

• She was an inside dog, but we had her on an invisible fence. If she was outside, neighborhood kids would want to come play with her. She’d be all up for it for about ten minutes. Then she’d be wanting back into the house to get away from them!

• She rarely barked. But if someone or something outside caught her attention, she’d give just one quick sharp yelp and make you jump out of your skin.

• She loved to get brushed, and would let you do it for as long as you would. And never a shedding problem. Poodles and poodle mixes are hypoallergenic.

• Our nightly routine: sit on the sofa and throw one of her toys down the hall. Galloping cockerpoo! Down the hall, back again, round the sofa, to the ottoman, off the ottoman, give the human the toy, throw the toy down the hall .... repeat endlessly.

• She never would use a dog bed and didn’t like to snuggle in bed. I think she got too hot. Even after haircuts. Mostly she slept on the floor, either curled up or on her side, feet out.

• She had a big purple spot on her tongue. The vet was certain she had a bit of chow in her.

• She was a total fraidy-cat and not a good watch dog. If we were out in the yard after dusk and she couldn’t see well, if you came walking around the corner of the house, she would high-tail it back to safety before she’d look back to see who it was. One night Bill and I had come back from somewhere. We had been listening to a sermon on a CD in the car, and only had a few minutes left to finish. Once in the house, Bill went on to bed, but I sat down in the living room floor in front of the stereo to listen to the rest of the CD. It was dark. I think I had one light on – the kitchen light, maybe – just enough light to see what I was doing. I heard something and looked up. Chloe had come out of the bedroom and was ambling up the hall. She was looking for me, because I wasn’t in the bedroom. I said, “Hi, Clo!” and patted the floor to call her to me. I guess I spoke too softly for her to hear me over the CD. She obviously couldn’t see me in the dim light. When I patted the floor it really startled her. I swear she jumped so high all four feet left the floor! When she landed she was in full retreat back to the bedroom! Good thing I’m not an intruder, silly dog! That one was worth about 2 days of belly laughs all at once!

Chloe was in kidney failure the last few months of her life. A special diet helped ... for a while.

We put her down January 2, 2019.

She will live on through the website articles and on the homepage drawings. Perhaps she can still deliver some good belly laughs. I try hard to capture her joy and energy in the drawings and always seem to fall short. I’ll keep trying ...

For all the years I had her, I would tell myself that I really needed to make new covers for those pillows she chewed on the first week she came to live with us. I never got to it. Now I wouldn’t do it for all the money in the world. They are souvenirs of my sweet Chloe that I can keep forever.