Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Goodbye, Sandy

I had to put sandy down today. She bit my sister mary in the face. Mary needed some stitches and has two black eyes. I feel terrible for her. She has the worst luck. So I don't blame Mary. but likewise I don't blame sandy.

sandy was in the middle of unfortunate circumstances.

I got sandy when I bought my house in toledo. I shopped around for a while and found her through Maumee Valley Save-a-pet. I picked her up and took her home. I had a fenced in yard so I let her loose. she ran over to a bush and barked. she flushed a bird out. it was trying to fly away but sandy jumped, caught it and killed it. (and that was in the first 30 minutes I owned her.) she also shedded A LOT! so I learned not to wear black pants.

in toledo it was just me and sandy. we walked by the river almost everyday. I took her to work where she would hump ginger, the office dog. she ripped up the linoleum in my kitchen - the vet said it was separation anxiety. we went to obedience class and sandy was the star pupil. the other owners hated us b/c we made it look easy. and sandy would forget it all when we went home.

then sandy and I moved to solon. her and jill (my parents' dog) did not get along and had to be kept separate. i've still got scars from getting inbetween them once.

we then moved to bedford which was convenient b/c dad would let her out if I was late at work. we could even walk to Chanel. which we did a lot. sandy was part of the bingo cleanup crew and loved running around the cafeteria. A lot of the Bingo ladies would ask how she was. For some reason she hated Mr. Gotch - my physics teacher/bingo caller/nicest guy in the world and would bark at him everytime she saw him. But Mr. Gotch seemed quite proud when sandy made her debut as moses the downtown dog in Cleveland Magazine. And he would often ask about "his favorite dog in the world."

Sandy didn't really get along with Mariella's Chloe either. And Mariella was never a huge fan of Sanders and probably with good reason.

Then when dad died sandy and I moved back to solon to help out mom. she again had to be separated from jill so she was cordoned off to the family room. It soon became her territory which she was very protective of. I walked her when I could but I was (and still am) ridiculously busy with all the rental house nightmares. I feel terrible for putting her through the stress of moving so many times but I didn't have a lot of choice in the matter. I wish I had my old life back too.

Not everyone liked Sandy. In fact, few did. but that's alright. Not everyone likes me, but she was always happy to see me. And I was glad to see her. We had each other - for a little while anyways.

I love you, girl. I'll miss you.

1 comment:

lisa said...

sandy was a sweet dog. crazy, but sweet. how many chapsticks did she eat? (or other plastic things?) i liked seeing how she would wag the little stub of a tail that she had. (and when she would see you, her whole rear end would wag.) i've met very few dogs that were as exuberant. and my boys, although terrified by her size, liked her as well. i know that henry snuck her more than a few treats. she had expressive ears. she did the little head tilt with the ears perked thing whenever she would hear her name, especially if there was a chance of getting food.