A Mom Like Me

It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to Sabrina, aged 14 years, and the sweetest, most loyal dog ever to live. Our family is really grieving as this precious soul was such an important part of our family and her passing came so suddenly.

I’ll never forget the first time I met Sabrina. She was the cutest little thing and all five pounds of her could fit inside the sleeve of my sweater. I came home for reading week from university with my good friend Shenade. It was Valentines Day and my mother had given us each a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates. Heading out for the evening, Shenade had left her box of chocolates  on the living room floor. Later that night, Ryan gated the kitchen where Sabrina’s bed was and hit the sack himself. Well, no little gate was going to keep that dog away from the delicious smell of chocolate! She somehow escaped her confines and devoured an entire box of chocolatey goodness. Shenade and I returned later that evening to an extremely wired dog who was running madly around the house. Ferrero Rocher wrappers littered the floor and the couch. She’d evidently had quite the party! We were so worried since she likely ate her body weight in chocolate, but she fared fine… and there began her love affair with food. As I search my mind for happy memories of our lovable little pooch, almost all of them relate to food. No wonder her little five pound body didn’t stay that way for long!   😉

"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole." (Roger Caras)

One of the fondest memories I have of Sabrina is back when she was just a puppy. It was Christmas season and my brother Ryan and I decided to decorate a gingerbread house. For whatever reason I can’t recall, we decided that it would be funny to put icing on Ryan’s face. If you knew Sabrina, you’d know that she’d do just about anything for a snack, and she couldn’t get that icing off his poor face fast enough. Poor Ryan. I am laughing thinking about her ravaging his poor cheeks in a desperate attempt to inhale every last morsel. (Sorry bro. I’m pretty sure that was my idea! 🙂 )

Sabrina was an extremely social pup. All she ever wanted was to be loved and to be in the company of others. She had the most gentle presence, even with the newest of babies. Anyone who met her loved her. She had the cutest little face (and no, I am not biased) and everyone she ever met agreed. On more than one occasion, while walking her in my hometown, people would stop and TALK TO SABRINA. Yeah, that’s right, they would look me over and talk to my dog. No joke- one time a woman actually stopped her car, stuck her head out the window and greeted my four legged companion. I got nothin.’

She was such a happy and vibrant creature. She loved to chase rolling grapes around the living room.  ( I don’t know if there’s anything she wouldn’t eat. Maybe lettuce. )Squirrels were her arch nemesis and she would wait all day long for a sly one to come down out of a tree. She loved to go to the lake and run through the bush. She loved to play “keep away” with her rubber steak. But mostly she just loved to follow my dad around, wherever he went. To the garage. To the garden. And if need be, she’d faithfully be at his heels right back to the garage again. And if she couldn’t go where he was off to? Well then she would sit and faithfully wait for the sound of his car.  If he was gone for any extended period of time, she could barely contain her excitement at the sound of his return. Whoever was in charge of her had to make sure she made it outside for their reunion, or there would most definitely be a puddle on the floor.

She absolutely adored her master, my father, and the sentiment was entirely mutual. She truly was man’s best friend. We all loved her, but no one cherished her like my dad. And she knew that. Right up until her last moment, she knew that she was loved.

We’ll miss you girl.

———————————————-

A STUMP FOR A TAIL

You can’t buy loyalty, they say
I bought it though, the other day;
You can’t buy friendship, tried and true,
Well just the same, I bought that too.
I made my bid, and on the spot
Bought love and faith and a whole job lot
Of happiness, so all in all
The purchase price was pretty small.
I bought a single trusting heart,
That gave devotion from the start.
If you think these things are not
for sale, Buy a brown-eyed puppy with
a stump for a tail.
— author unknown —

Don't cry because it's over, Smile because it happened. -Dr. Seuss

This entry was posted on March 27, 2011 at 7:35 pm and is filed under pets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.