Dottie

Yesterday was a sad day for our family. Our beloved dog Dottie died. I wasn’t expecting to be so grieved by her passing, but I keep remembering her and tearing up. I’m also carrying guilt over how her life could have been better. You see, she came into our life BC (Before Children), when Dom and I had not even been married a year yet. So she and her sister Maggie had been our children and we spoiled them. Once our “real” children came, the dogs got a back seat in our life. I’m sure that is normal, but now that Dottie is gone, I feel we could have treated her better, that she deserved better.

It all began when Dom and I, along with Dom’s niece, Jessica, went into a pet store in Elmira, NY one day 12 years ago. We were not intending to buy a dog. We said that we wanted to wait until we had a place with a yard before doing that because at that time we were living above our restaurant in Watkins Glen, NY. Our back yard was a parking lot and our front yard was the main street in town. We didn’t think that would be fair for a dog. But you know the story, we went into that pet store and fell in love, with not one dog, but two! I had been wanting a Lab and Dom had been wanting a Dalmatian. The pet store had both! The lab looked so adorable with her blue eyes and white stomach. I still remember her in the corner of the store looking at me with those blue, blue eyes, and I fell in love. Of course Dom wanted the Dalmatian, but I remember holding her in the pet store, and she curled up on my lap and fell asleep. From then on out I was hers. She claimed me, and she never really was Dom’s dog, she was mine. She only ever wanted to be near me, everywhere I went in the house she was my shadow. And normally, she was just in my way and annoying (reason for my current guilt).

But on the way home from the pet store, we were discussing what to name them and Jessica came up with Dottie. We liked it and it stuck. She had wanted to call the Lab, Coco, but when Dom’s mom took one look at her she said, “no she’s not a Coco (a very popular name for Chocolate Labs), she’s a Maggie." And so she was.

It was hard having the dogs in the apartment, just like we thought it would be. Soon we bought a house just a block away from the restaurant that had a nice big yard for the dogs. That first year was an adventure with those pups. Maggie loved leather and ate every pair of shoes I owned that were made out of it. I had a set of books that had belonged to my grandparents. They were the one thing that I had wanted to take from their estate after my grandmother passed to remember them by. Well Maggie got a hold of one that had a leather cover and ate it. I still have the book, minus the cover (At least I thought I did. Upon writing this I went looking for it and can‘t find it. I‘m afraid Dom might of got a hold of it and tossed it thinking it was no good. Hmm…). It’s the one thing I miss from her puppy chewing days (and maybe more if I can‘t find it). Dottie on the other hand loved my canvas shoes. So between the two of them I had no shoes left except maybe the ones on my feet.

The house where we lived barely had any grass and the first winter we had the pups the weather was unseasonably warm. So any snow we got melted right away and so the ground was always a big muddy mess. We would put the dogs out and immediately upon their return inside we marched them to the bath tub to wash their feet. They got so used to this they automatically went straight to the tub when they came in. One time they came in and I didn’t need to wash their feet so I didn’t march them to the tub. But later I realized that they were “missing” and went looking for them. There they were both patiently waiting in the tub for me to come wash their feet. Precious.

Dottie loved bread! I could not leave anything on the counter in the bread family and leave her in the house alone and expect to come home to find it again. So I got into the habit of always putting the bread in a safe place. During writing this I was baking bread and as I took it out of the oven, I thought “I need to put this someplace where Dottie can’t get it before I go outside to help Dom with the chicken coop (we are adding on)." Of course the stark reminder of her no longer eating my bread came to mind, a sad thought. When Dom came home last night after I had already dug a hole for her and I hadn't covered her yet with dirt because I wanted to give him the chance to say goodbye, I went outside to be with him and looked in the hole and there was a piece of bread beside her. I said, “who put that bread in there.” I was of course thinking Anna or one of the kids did it, and Dom said, “I did.” So she is buried with one of her favorite things.

Dottie turned 12 years on June 10. Maggie’s B’day was just two days before and they were both born at the same kennel. They were truly sisters. We had to put Maggie to sleep about 4 years ago before moving here. So when Dottie was dying, I told her to go be with Maggie. Quinn asked me yesterday if dogs have spirits. I told him I really don’t know, but I hope she is running in an open field chasing a rabbit with dear old Maggie dog.

We love you Dottie Dog and we miss you.

***********************************Maggie too!