I have just gone through another tragedy today. You see my beloved companion passed today. The companion that would sit on the back of the couch and stare at me when I was eating. The companion that would come down and sit on my lap to cuddle every now and then. My companion that would be underfoot when I was cooking supper. my companion that joined me on my walks around the block and out on my adventures.

This fellow here. He was only 15. His name was Rocky. Short for Rocky butt. Ha! I used Butt in there. He was my constant companion. Followed me wherever I went. Unless my son was here to visit. They where best buds. Rocky would always jump for joy when he saw Rob. Then I was just a second class citizen in his eyes. Never knew why Rocky like Rob so much, but every time he came to visit they where together.

I got Rocky as a pup from one of the pet stores in town. Paid a pretty penny for him. I had gone to this pet store and was looking at the puppies. I already had a dog. Boots is her name. Big Boots as I called her. But now that our other dog Sparkplug had passed and Boots was alone I thought maybe I would get another to keep Boots company. I looked at the puppies and then headed for home. To explain to hubby that I wanted another dog. It didn’t take much explaining. He knows I am an animal person. Always had pets around the house. So next day I went back to pick up a puppy. I had one picked out, but when I got there, there was another puppy in the pen as well. I looked at him and decided I would take him instead.

I felt sorry for him. He was a rejected. Well not in a health matter way. Just a reject in that he had been brought back to the store. He was purchased for a child and then the parents found out that the child had an allergy so they had to bring the puppy back. So I picked him up and fell in love with this reject right away. When I said I would take him I found out that all the things these parents had purchased for this puppy went along with him. Well a cute little puppy and a slew of toys and dishes and everything else to go along with the puppy. I had Boots along as well to get to know the new puppy. She certainly wasn’t too thrilled about having a puppy beside her in the store.

Well she did warm to the new puppy. They wrestled and growled at each other. Their way of playing. got pretty noisy in the house every now and then. There where times they laid together on the bed on the floor and other times they tolerated each other as if they didn’t care for each other. You would throw a ball or a toy and they would both go after it to make sure they got it first. Boots would try to bring it back to me to have me throw again. Rocky would try to take the toy to bed and keep it for himself. Boots would run to the bed and try to take it back from Rocky to play more.

Two peas in a pod they are. The joy of my life. Alas they are growing old. So much faster then we are. See that is why I don’t like to grow old. Your fur babies grow old faster then you do.

Rocky became kinda old so fast. He started not to eat. His hair was coming out. He was slowing down. Then his ribs and backbone started to show. Every day was a different thing. He looked like he was dazed and confused. Like he couldn’t see right. We had to start carrying him up and down the stairs to get him to go outside to pee. He still went for walks with us around the block. it was a very slow block. By the end he was way behind. Then this morning. He wouldn’t even come to go for a walk. We got him downstairs, but he just laid down again. So hubby took him and laid him on the couch and we took boots out.

So with Boots alone out for her walk. Some of the neighbours asked about our other dog. So we chatted for a bit about dogs. Then we went on our way. When we got back to the house Rocky was laying in the Same place. Never moved. I sat on the couch with him. He wiggled a little but didn’t move much. A couple hours latter he moved again. Wet a spot on the couch and then he stopped. So sad. That was when my Rocky left me.

Boots is now alone again. She is not in the best of shape either. She stumble around. When she was a puppy she had injured her leg and now that gives her trouble in walking. Sometimes not being able to see either. She has lumps on her bod and some scares that keep coming back. I keep thinking that it is soon time for her to go as well, but then. Hubby keeps saying she may have a few more months in her. So I keep holding on to her. She right now is 17. Will love her until it is time to say goodbye. This is a rare picture of her. She didn’t like the camera. Anytime I pulled it out to take a photo she would shy away.

I have been through seven maybe eight dogs now. There was one dog on the farm when I was really young. I know there are pictures of me with her and my sister. I don’t remember this dog though. That is my sister with a pooch I was too young to remember.

I had a notorious habit of taming all of the barn cats as well. Dad was never too happy with that. They wouldn’t be mousers if I tamed them up. I had one cat that I tamed. She was a great mouser and also could produced many more mousers. It isn’t this cat above. Her name was blackie. She was a tortuous hair cat. Showed upon the farm one day and I tamed her. She had an incident once. I am not sure if a wild animal had gotten to her or she was hit on the road. But she had a set of kittens. I cared for her while she cared for her kittens. She got better and her kittens thrived. One day she up and disappeared . She may have died or may have been gotten by another animal. I never knew. Just one day she was gone.

I always asked to have a dog. One time we where at a cousins place and they had some puppies. They said that I would be able to have one. Unfortunately that is not the same idea that dad had. I cuddled that puppy until we had to leave. Then dad said we can not take it. I had fallen in love so fast with a puppy just to have it given back.

My first dog that I remember is Mitzi. She showed up on the farm one day and just stayed. I thought she belonged to the neighbour behind us. I was playing outside and she just came up and started to play with me. We dug in the snowbank together making a Fort. She just stayed after that. Would follow me everywhere and when night came she went back to sleep in the barn. My first tragedy. A few years later she was killed on the highway. I was devastated. She was my only friend who was there for me through thick and thin. And she was gone.

That’s me. A skinny teenager. With Mitzi. I named her after a dolphin that was in Florida. I saw that dolphin when my parents and I went to Florida and went to a dolphin reserve. Yes dolphins. I had a thing for them at an early age. That name stuck with me and when this dog came to stay with us I named her Mitzi.

After Mitzi passed I begged and pleaded for another dog. I couldn’t be without one. The spoiled brat that I was. Dad wasn’t too sure about having another but then said okay. Two doors down was a kennel of hunting dogs. All beagles. They where the cutest things. But boy could they bark. There was one shy little guy in the kennels. He would Not come to the front of the pen. Just sit in the back and cower away. I ask the neighbour if I could have him. The neighbour was happy to have a place for him to go. He would have had to get rid of him because he was too timid to do the hunting competitions that he wanted done. So now I had a new dog.

Doesn’t he have a oh so cute face. He was a timid dog and only responded to me. I walked by and he would howl to be with me. I spent allot of time with him. His name was champ. My sister called him champion tuneup the spark plug. He was a farm dog. During his older years I moved to town and the farm was sold. So in that time champ went to live at my other sisters farm. When I bought a house I brought him into town to live with us. But it wasn’t to be for him. He was a farm dog. Not use to the city. Definitely wasn’t an inside dog. He spent a little time with us but soon left me as well. Another love of my life gone

So married life was upon me, but I couldn’t be without a dog. I saw An ad in the newspaper for puppies for sale. A springer spaniel litter. Oh they are such cute puppies. I picked one out. She was from champion stock. She was my child. I went everywhere with her. She loved being everywhere with me. Long walks, car rides, camping and visits with family. Her name was princess. She even gave us a set of puppies. I had to sell them. Couldn’t keep them. But I did try. I had planned on breading again, but it was just too hard to get them to new homes. I didn’t want to give them up. Princess had a buddy as well. First I had a white cat that I called Angel. The only thing was she was too much a terror. Was always into something. I had things on the counter and she would knock them off and princess was into it and chewing it up. Angel didn’t last too long before she went to the farm she came from.

So Princess got another friend. Another cat came into our lives. Her name was Tabitha. a Siamese cat. Was given to hubby from a co worker. Princess and her were fast friends. They spent their time together. Tabitha wasn’t the terror that Angel was. She did get up on the counter, but didn’t cause as much trouble. Both these animals stayed with us for 19 years.

These two also moved west with us. Tabitha was not too fond of riding in a car. Meow! Meow! Meow! All the way across Canada. Until we covered the pen she was in. Then she had a hiding place and quieted down. Tabitha left us when we where in Vernon. Princess had finally had enough and was getting really sick at age 19 and we put her down before we went to campbell river. It wasn’t long after we had come west that she had had enough. I still miss her. She was the best friend I had through the first part of my marriage while hubby worked away from home.

So we made the move to campbell river. There I went to a shelter and came home with an older dog. Great for walking with, but she loved to chew things. Know why someone else had given her up. I named her muffin. All because her hair was so fluffy.

She looked almost the same as Princess. Oh and yes we did have some rabbits for a bit. They where great when they where outside, but when you put them in their pen at night they would chase each other around the pen like they where going to attack each other. Those bunnies lasted a little while and then went onto a better place. We where moving again and couldn’t take them with us.

Muffin joined us in our new home on the queen Charlotte islands. On a trip back to visit in Ontario we saw a dog in a pet store there. Such a little cutie. I couldn’t pass her up. A dog for our son. Well she was mostly mine, but we said it was for our son. She was a cross between a Jack Russell and a schnauzer. Oh what a mix that was.

Her name is Sparkplug. We gave the choice to our son to name. We went through name after name after name and he kept saying no. So after allot of frustration I finally said something silly and said Sparkplug. My son looked at me and said yes. Who boy. A dog named Sparkplug. This came about from when I was a kid and my sister kept calling my beagle champion tuneup a Sparkplug. So I said Sparkplug and my son said yes. You really want to know. It was a good name for her. She could jump over an eight foot fence no problem. She ran beside my bicycle for miles and miles. Never tiring. She was so full of energy you had to have her out all the time.

About the time that Sparkplug was around 17. We thought that maybe another dog would be in order as Sparkplug would not be with us much longer. She was tired and sleeping all the time and I wanted someone to be able to go out and walk with. So off to a pet store and I came home with Boots

I know a fuzzy picture but isn’t she the cutest. Alittle ball of fluff. They say that she was a bichon shitzu cross. Boy do I think they got that wrong. She turned into too big a dog to be shitzu or even bichon. Well bringing home Boots had turned Sparkplug around. She was playing again. The two of them had many a rough playing in the living room. They spent all their time together. Sparkplug lasted another three years before we just had to put her down. She couldn’t take life anymore.

Now Boots had been alone and just seemed so lost. She would look everywhere for Sparkplug. So here is where Rocky comes in. Boots stopped looking for Sparkplug and took over being mommy for Rocky. They have been happily ever after for the last 15 years. Then the inevitable happened. Rocky started to decline. To where yesterday he laid down on the floor. Made a couple of movements and then he was gone.

Now today I watch Boots wander the house. From one chair to another. From downstairs to upstairs. From room to room and then goes to lay on the dog bed on the floor. One of the last places Rocky was sleeping. We walk Boots alone and she looks to see if Rocky is with us. She is so quiet now. Just looks and wonders. And sleeps in that bed. The bed she would never sleep in as she always laid on the end of the couch next to Rocky.

It is breaking my heart in more ways then one. I feel so sorry for Boots and I feel just as bad for me that Rocky is gone. He had such a character to himself that will so much be missed. Such a comical face to laugh at. He wasn’t the small dog that I had wanted when I bought him, but he has taken a place in my heart that will not be replaced.

So now like I said in the beginning of this writing. I do not like growing old. I defiantly do not like growing old while pets leave us so soon. in their short lives with us they bring so much love to us unconditionally. They try as they get older to keep up the pace, but just can’t do it. You love them all the more and poof one day they are gone. Leaving a whole in your heart where that love use to be.

So now with tears in my eyes I say goodbye to another loved one. Makes me think back to all the other love I have had over the years. Goodbye Rocky. I will miss you till my dying day.

His passing has brought back all my memories of my passed loves. I will leave it here in my writing and put him into my memories as well. Love you all Mitzi, champ, princess, Angel, tabitha, muffin, Sparkplug, boots who is still with me for a bit yet and Rocky. Love ya lots and hope to have a welcome many years from now on that rainbow bridge.

Now the question is will I have another dog. Well that is up in the air right now. I swore I will not, but you never know. Maybe another cute face will come into my view and steel my heart away. I just don’t know if I want to go through anymore heart ache again. Or listen to hubby tell me that I don’t train them right or do not look after them the way I should.

Well that is my sadness down in writing now. Time to do some healing of my heart and hope that now that Boots is alone that she does not leave me too soon either. She outlived two others and is still going, but with pain. I will love her to the end.

Well not much of an adventure on my part, but a little bit of sorrow instead. Will talk to you next time when I do a little healing of myself. Bye for now