Our family lost a dear friend this week. Our old dog Fly first came to live with us when she was just a black ball of fluff. We first adopted her bigger, more rambunctious brother Rex from the SPCA, but when he whimpered and whined all night we took the advice of more experienced dog owners and went back to get one of his siblings. Fly was the runt of the litter, about half the size of Rex. While Rex ran around the yard and jumped all over everyone who came near him, Fly hunted for a warm lap to snuggle into contentedly. Can you tell which one is which?
Fly had many quirks, as I guess all dogs do. She could not ride in a vehicle without getting car sick. Ewww. That certainly cut down on visits to the vet or out of town trips to, say, evacuate for a hurricane.
Fly did not like enclosed spaces. Underneath a house or clubhouse or shed? Great! Inside a cozy doghouse? No way. Fenced into the backyard? Oh please, no.
Fly would do nearly anything for cheese. She caught on to our use of cheese when trying to lure her back inside the fence, unfortunately.
Fly would not wear a collar, and she would NOT under any circumstances walk on a leash. She would just slip her head right out of the collar and run away, or if that didn't work she'd simply lie down in the middle of the road and refuse to walk any farther. Maggie was determined to train her but gave up after having to pick her up and carry her home every time.
Fly preferred not to eat while people were watching her. Or cats. Many times she let the cats just take her food rather than eat while they hovered nearby waiting to steal it.
What is the opposite of an alpha dog? Whatever it is, that's Fly. She considered herself above no one and no thing, even when she had seniority. A long line of stray animals have come and gone at our house, and she let each one of them walk all over her. Well, except for the litter of puppies that arrived one spring. They tried to adopt Fly as their nursemaid but she was having none of that. She wasn't rude and she didn't try to hurt them, but she found creative ways to stay away from them until we had the good sense to find new homes for all of them.
Fly loved to lick. On the lips, if possible. Or a nose would do just as nicely. She quickly came to be known as Sweetie-Pie Fly because she was, well, such a sweetie. We could trust her to be gentle with kids, and kids gravitated to her because she loved them immediately. These shots of Fly and our friend Abby just radiate joyous love, don't you think?
Fly's absolute favorite place in the world was our front porch. It was her dream to be a bonafide porch dog, and there were repeated, prolonged periods when we tried to fulfill her heart's desire because we enjoyed seeing her smiling face when we walked out of the door.
After Hurrican Ike, lots of dogs roamed the streets of Angleton. Fly enjoyed getting to know several of them and developed the habit of checking neighborhood garbage cans for unexpected treats. We cleaned up other people's garbage more times than I care to remember. It was worth it though to see her playing like a young pup again with one particular dog whose family came to stay across the street for a couple of months. I was about to suggest a shared custody arrangement -- one week in their backyard, one week in ours -- when they up and went back home and Fly was left all alone again. We hated to put her in the backyard again. Week after week we made excuses and came up with new rationalizations for letting her stay on/under the front porch. But then...
I'd had to pay a fine for this sort of violation once before, and I knew what was coming if we didn't comply. So...
We broke our sweetie-pie's heart. I'm not sure she ever really recovered. Somehow we didn't make it out to the backyard to visit with our girl like we had when she waiting for us on the porch. And those darn cats -- harrrumph.
When the end came, it came quickly, just as this bitter cold wave was settling into our area. We are grateful that she let us get her snuggled into her doghouse so she wouldn't be too miserable. And we're thankful that her true Keeper took her home before she had to shiver too long.
Goodbye, dear Fly. I think it's going to be a while before we can look along the fenceline and not expect to see a ball of salt and pepper fluff topped by this face:
I sleep and wake up refreshedbecause You, Lord, protect me.
Psalm 3:5 CEV
