The Similkameen News Leader
Editorial
May 5, 2008
I LOST A FRIEND THIS WEEK
Our first meeting went something like this:
I knew her 'mom' and as a favour I house sat for her for a few days.
That was when we metSalong with her sister.
I must admit that at first I wasn't all that attracted to them. They weren't really my type and after all, the house sitting was a favour. She was the quiet one and her sister was the loud one two complete ends of the spectrum. I couldn't see how anything would develop between us, but it did and one night I let them sleep with me.
This was my introduction to life with Australian Shepherd/Border Collies that made me realize dogs could be pretty good friends.
There was no way of knowing at the time that I would eventually marry their 'mom' and between three dogs (hers) and a cat (mine) we would end up with our own blended family. We lost Boo Boo (the sister) five years ago to a rare cancer. Shortly after that Yogi started to come out of her shell. She was no longer shy and quiet, and there was something very special about her. She was playful and polite. She would chase a ball, a rock, a stick or anything as long as you kept throwing it and still want more after she'd wear you out, then afterwards she'd wait at the door for you to invite her in and then she'd wait inside the door to be invited into the rest of the house.
As she got older, we had to quit throwing the ball so far as Yogi would stiffen up overnight after a vigourous workout the day before. So the games continued, but with fewer and shorter throws as to not wear her out.
We started taking her to work because she was great with everyone and it gave her something to do for part of the day. It turned out that many of our customers started to grow so fond of Yogi that they would ask specifically to see her. Yogi made many friends, a few she couldn't wait to see daily.
She gave our office a certain feel. Call it homey, but it was nice to have her there, even if she spent a lot of time Ohoover' ing crumbs off the floor around my workstation or barking at a certain someone to hurry up with his coffee and sit down so he could feed her some treats.
It was two weeks ago she started to show signs of illness we weren't really sure of. She had a few accidents, started drinking a lot more water than we've ever seen her do and days later she lost her appetite. At first we thought she was just Ogetting old' on us. After all, she turned 13 in January.
She even greeted me one day after work last week with a ball in her mouth and stumbled her way to me hoping I'd play with her. After I kicked the ball less that a foot away she just looked at it. I knew she wasn't herself.
A trip to the vet revealed she had canine diabetes and although it was treatable, we considered her age, the fact that she was now deaf, was going blind, was already arthritic and well Yogi did not come home and I lost a friend this week. I had no idea how attached I was to her until she was gone. We still have another dog and the cat, but more importantly, I still have the person who introduced Yogi to me in my life.
And I'm okay with that.
