Shadow

Ahh.... my heart is breaking.  We lost our precious Shadow two weeks ago.  He had been getting sicker the last few weeks, and he just couldn't fight it any longer.  We are all so sad...but, Brad, Erin, Julie, Joe and I all got to be with him when he went.  I really think he liked that.  He loved us all so so much, and we loved him. 

Shadow danced into our world as a five week old puppy.  He was so small that he fit on a 12" square of tile in our basement.  The stairs perplexed him as he would look up as if to say, "really?  you want me to climb that?" 

Julie and Shadow when she brought him home.



As Shadow grew, it became obvious that he was going to be a handful, but a loving handful at that.  When Cookie was alive, he would wait patiently for her to go outside with him and play.  He didn't always stay outside, but he seemed to like to lay in the sun on the hottest day of summer.  We all remembered the time we cleaned his kennel and it was a very hot summer day.  The sun was beating down on his kennel, but he stayed in it as if to say... "this is mine and I'm not leaving !!"

Shadow was a good listener.  He listened to everything Julie would say to him and respond in a way that only Shadow could respond, with his head down on your hands and a bitter whining as if to say -- I feel your sadness, joy, pain, (fill in the blank).  When Julie went away to college, he was always glad to see her come home and would greet her in this manner.  When she would pack to go back to school, he sometimes would take her clothes out of her suitcase as if to say "please stay".  He always got nervous when  Erin and I would go to Kansas City for the weekend and we started moving suitcases.  I hated leaving him, but it was better than putting him in a kennel.  He hated kennels, and would bark himself voiceless.

He was fiercely protective of us, so much so that when anyone came to the house that he didn't know, he would bark at them.  Even though this was so annoying, I really did understand why he did it.

He never jumped on furniture or chewed up anything.  He was a retriever through and through, except he hated water.  When he was a young dog, he ran from the house one day and straight to the pond behind our neighbor's house.  He was greeted by a flock of geese who lifted their wings and squawked loudly at him.  He never went in the water again. 

I will miss Shadow greeting me when I get home from work, and laying in the middle of all of us during family gatherings.  He would patiently lay under the table when we ate hoping for just a morsel to drop from our table.  When my Aunt Wee Woe was staying at our house, he stayed by her side all day and even stood still for her to brace herself on him.  When she died, he truly mourned her too.

Sunbathing with Julie the day before her wedding

I will always miss seeing him look out the window at us whenever we drove away.  But he patiently waited for us and was so happy to see us, and we were happy to see him.  I never knew a heart could hurt so much.  
Shadow.  We all love you and miss you.  We will never EVER forget you.  Rest in peace sweet boy. 

Love... Mom, Dad, Katie, Chantz, Julie, Joe, Erin, and especially Sam and Yadi.

Shadow loved to run in the snow.  It was his favorite thing

Another snow picture with his sweet girl, Erin

With his new best friend, Yadi

The front of a really nice card from the Vet that took care of Shadow

The inside of the card.  It still makes me sad to read it.

November 12, 1999 - April 26, 2012 

Julie

This past Saturday was Julie's 25th birthday.   I know I have said it before, but she never ceases to amaze me.  Her compassion for suffering people is so strong, that I know many people who have been and will be touched by her will always remember her for her kindness. 

So for her birthday, she and Joe invited us to eat pizza with them at Balducci's and then they got dressed up and went to the Fox theatre to see West Side Story.  They both looked very nice.  They liked the play, too. 

Since they were going to be gone for most of the evening, I got to dog sit Yadi.  Now Yadi is the sweetest dog.  He loves our back yard, and spent the first half of the evening running like crazy.  It would be easy to sell tickets and place bets on him.  He is that fast.  Poor Shadow, on the other hand, tolerates Yadi, but he has enough puppy in him to remember how much fun it is to run and jump too.  The only thing is Shadow tuckers out fast and Yadi just keeps on going.  This is how they were at the end of the evening.

After Julie and Joe got back, we had ice cream cake -- Yum Yum.

Then Yadi and Shadow got a "second wind" and ended up like this:

Yadi Won!!!

So Julie, thank you for bringing so much joy to my life. You are so special to me.  Happy birthday.  I love you!!!

~mom~

Birthday Girl

Today is my middle daughter's birthday.  I remember this day like it was yesterday.  She was the largest of my three girls -- 7 lb., 7 oz., but happened to turn out to be the petite one of the three. (No the other two are not big and overweight, she is just shorter than they are).She is so perfect and gorgeous.  She still is.  Her large blue eyes and dimpled smile still melt my heart.  As a middle child she has had to fight for her place in the family.  She also has gone through a lot in her 24 years, but I would like to think she is a better person for it.  She is a nurse, which brings out her compassionate side, and  she just started volunteering at an animal shelter.  Her gift of caring is amazing.  So happy birthday sweet girl.  I love you very much.  <3

Christmas 2010

Julie & Joe