End of a Cinderella Story.

Jan 09, 2011 10:16

Yesterday morning, my dad finally took in our long time friend and family member, Cindy the chow chow, to be put to sleep.  She was 17 years old.  As my dad observed to my step-mom, she lasted longer than his first marriage.  We'd had Cindy since she was a six month old puppy.

I just wanted to talk a little bit about her in loving memory because Cindy... she was special.  She was an ambassador for her breed.  If all dogs really do go to heaven then they have a special place reserved for her because she wasn't just a good dog, or a great dog.  she was the best dog.

Chow chow's have a reputation for being aggressive and not very good with children.  You would have never known that if you meet Cindy.  Gentle, calm and docile as anything, she was a very polite little lady and the perfect nanny.  We got her from her breeder just after I had turned 8 years old and she was my best friend from the start, though the person she eventually bonded closest with was my dad.  I have an old picture somewhere of me and my childhood best friends having dressed her up in old baby clothes.  Even after I got older, she continued to be great with kids.  When our young next-door neighbors came over, the smallest of which was being just a toddler, they'd hug on her and pull of her tail and fur.  Cindy would have shown more reaction to an annoying fly.  The dog was a saint and had the patience to mach.

She was a perfect watch dog as well, barking to alert when someone was at he door but calming to politely sniff and wag her tail once they where in the house.  I can count the number of times she growled in her entire life on one hand: twice.  Both times, a strange man was climbing the fence of our back yard when me and my mom where home alone (the first was my other neighbor's teenage son trying to retrieve a frisbee and the second was a repair man trying to get to the telephone pole in our backyard).  And never once did she even put on the pretense of trying to bite.

Cindy even helped me in my personal life.  Though she was closest to my dad, she was very standoffish to other males and usually took a while to warm up to them. So, when I brought my husband home the first night we'd started dating and Cindy enthusiastically greeted and then proceeded to follow him around for the evening looking to pets and attention, I knew he was something special.

This past year we had our first child, and Cindy almost lived to see her first birthday.  But, she  was very arthritic, near completely blind and deaf and had a large tumor growing on her chest.  It was simply time to say good bye.  Though I'm sure had we asked it of her, she would have stuck around longer, that simply wouldn't have been fair of us.

Rest in peace my dear friend.  You definitely earned it.

I will love and remember you, always.

-Shannon

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