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Maddie
A pensive moment by an empty dish
Maddie, Photoshopped
A holiday card image
Condolences from a Longtime Friend
My dear friend Deborah-Eve sent this tribute. It must be conceded that Deborah-Eve is not a "pet person," but, yes, I do love her very much!
On New Year's Eve (I think) of 1993 (let's say), my parents were out of town for someone's party and my aunts Chris and Carol came to our house to babysit and hold a memorial service for the numerous animals who had died that year. I was around 11 years old and I had every surface in my room covered with cages for various critters. Molly, our childhood dog, and Carli, Chris's dog, were the headliners of that memorial service, but there were a few dozen (or so) animals to be named before them. Carol presided over the ceremony. "Alice, the guppy," she'd say. And I, the guppy's owner would light the tiny birthday cake candle stuck in a styrofoam packaging material. "Katya, the Decatur pond fish....." (Candle lighting, etc.)
ReplyDeleteBy the time the small animals had been remembered, with candles getting progressively larger as the significance of species increased, it was Molly's and Carli's turn. Those were sad deaths as they were young - Molly died of cancer at age 5 and Carli was still a puppy. Chris had written Carli's memoirs and she read them while everyone teared up.
Meanwhile, the tiny birthday cake candles burned down to the styrofoam, which caught fire mid-memoir and had to be extinguished.
Hey everybody. I'm Natasha and my grandparents 17 year old dog, Roxanne, just recently died. Well, I wouldn't say "die" it was more like she had to be "put to sleep" because she had cancer. She ahd a uge tumor that gradaually got bigger day by day. Roxy and Maddie were close doggies to each other and they were the same age when they died. They were also both pretty small and very nice. Maddie loved food while Roxy loved licking every and anything..even poop! Maddie and
ReplyDeleteRoxy were great dogs.
-Natasha Handy
Age 12
Thank you, Jessica and Natasha, for contributing your stories! Yes, Maddie and her "cousin" Roxy had many similarities, like both making their acting debut in the aforementioned "Tragedy." The memorial service of (let's say) 1993 is a classic pet story! So glad you've included it here. Thanks again. See if you can get Jack to upload his Alex memoir, OK?
ReplyDeleteJack Handy said..........I don't recall writing a memoir for Alex. Sorry. I do recall that we got Alex within an hour of putting Molly to sleep. There happened to be an APL adoption event at Fairhills Mall that night. Lynn didn't go, but her instructions were that she didn't like dogs with a brindle color, so don't get one like that. Jessica, Kate, and I went into the adoption event and about the only puppy there was Alex. And, of course, he was brindle colored. The girls really wanted him, so we got him. Alex was a very loyal dog. He slept in a laundry basket in our bedroom. Whenever I stirred in the morning, Alex would pop his head up to see if I was getting up and he could play. It got to the point where I would intentionally move around and I would see how many times he would continue to pop up in response. It was really cute the way he did that. Alex didn't like anyone to touch his front legs. I'm pretty sure that was as a result of a trip to the vet where they had a difficult time drawing blood. He was a very great dog, IMO.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jack! Carol thought you had written a tribute to Alex after his death and posted it on your refrigerator. That's the memoir to which I refer.
ReplyDeleteWas it Max or Maddie who came to visit me in Iowa when I lived across from the Lucky Lady? I'm remembering an episode that involved a water gun.
ReplyDeleteI'm also remembering Thanksgiving with Carli when she was so little. I played with her while you were at work, and I remember she liked to listen to the radio. It seems that the months at the end of the year and into the next year have been especially sad for you. You've lost a lot of loved ones in those months. I'm always grateful for you, but the days approaching Thanksgiving always make me more mindful of how much I love you--with the focus on being thankful. This year I'll especially think about all the Maddie years we've shared as friends!
ReplyDeleteThat was Max. As I recall we were on our way to Lorene's wedding. Max actually bit Lorene when she came over to the car to say hi after the day-after brunch.
ReplyDeleteR.I.P. Max A. Million, 1990-2008, a sweet browm dachshund.
IN MEMORY OF BOWSER T. DOG
ReplyDeleteFebruary 1, 1980-August 19, 1997
I alluded to my love for Bowser in an earlier comment, but I would like to expand on that. Thanks, Chris, for providing this venue for memorials to the pets that have been so important a part of our lives. A book going around in Christian circles is Heaven by Randy Alcorn. I got a hold of someone’s copy at church yesterday and quickly went to the question of whether animals go to heaven and got the answer I wanted: yes! I look forward to seeing Bowser there. He was a great companion to me all of his years. There were plenty of days when the only reason I got out of bed was that he needed to go out. Chris got him for me from the Decatur pound, same one pictured on the first page of this site. It was at a time when I didn’t want to get out of bed, but I did to play with that cute little puppy. He was a beagle X, according to the vet. In those days the pound released puppies before they were even neutered, because I remember already missing him when he was at the vet overnight for his operation. When he was about 6 months, I took Bowsie to obedience training. He did pretty well – in fact he got the 4th place trophy at the final trials. (No, it wasn’t in a class of 4 – there were probably a good 15-20 puppies he beat out.) Unfortunately I did not keep up practicing his commands. Bowser craved food, but only the way the average dog craves food, which is quite a lot, but nothing like Maddie. If Bowser had a defining desire, it was freedom, at least for the first ten or so years of his life. Whenever an outside door was opened, you had to be on the lookout, because he always took that as an opportunity to try for an escape. In the summer of 1996, Bowser had a stroke and walked a little crooked the rest of his life. I think it was also that summer that he became dehydrated and we had to inject water into his skin several times a day. I remember that Kate Handy, who would have been 12 that summer, learned to do that procedure. In August of 1997 Bowser became really weak and sick, and I hated to leave him alone when I went to Springfield on Monday, August 18, which was the date my niece Jessica was scheduled to be induced at Springfield Memorial and my father was having heart surgery at St. John’s. Jessica’s induction didn’t take and was scheduled again for August 19, and I returned home to Decatur. During the early morning hours, while it was still dark, I woke up and found that Bowser, lying beside me in my bed, was no longer breathing. Natasha Dominique Handy was born that day, so I always remember Bowser’s death date. He was a wonderful, loyal companion, and the pet love of my life.
For Maddie
ReplyDeletein memoriam
Carol: Great story on Bowser. I remember him always putting his paw or maybe his head on my lap for extra attention. He did love those walks.
ReplyDeleteDeborah: You were a great help with Carli when we first got her and Thanksgiving was so much better with you around.
Jack: Molly was sweet and always careful around young Max. He liked to lie near her and looked so tiny then. Molly was the first big dog that he interacted with and always a plus when it goes well.
Chris: Maddie and Max got along so good. They both liked to be under the bed covers. Maddie always took the right side, Max the left. Max was especially fond of eating his food extra slow in front of her. I think Maddie was a near genius dog when it came to doing things her way. For example, walk where she wanted to go or she would just lie down.
Special note: Deep thanks to Norma who started Chris and I on the path of dog ownership. Pets make us whole....
Beanie was my "own" first dog and a beagle. Long, long ago but still remembered, along with the white lab rat, Sam.