This past Sunday our Lab, Doodles, passed away. Doo was such a sweet dog with such a happy disposition. She loved to "hunt" with her little brother Biscuit in the back yard, though together they never caught anything, not even the oh so elusive Mr. Squirrel. However, Doo was known to kill a bird from time to time when the birds decided to swoop her which she didn't like. One of her favorite things was her big galvanized bathtub, which she would sit in especially during the summer.
Doo came to us as a stray. She was about 3 months old according to the vet. The little boys that use to live behind us had found her wandering the neighborhood and had been feeding her hot dogs for two days until their mom found out. For some reason the boys came over to our back door and asked me if we could keep her so that their mom wouldn't take her to the pound. Well one look at the all black Lab and I was a goner. As with all puppies she was hyper and all legs. And we knew she would be somewhat large based on the size of her huge paws. Within a week she tried her hand or paws at gardening and ate all my Gerber daises. Then she decided to become a telephone repairman and chewed though the phone cord attached to the back of the house, twice. Then dad got smart and covered the cord with super strong PVC pipe. We won't count how many toys she went through till we decided to get her balls that were too big for her mouth, then she liked to kick them around. If you stood to close to her behind she would beat you to death with her tail. When she was little, if you gave her a treat, such as a hot dog or a rawhide bone she would bury it, but she would never dig them back up. Though she never dug under the fence to escape.
When we got her sister Muffin, one of the cocker spaniels they became great friends. And they helped each other with simple commands. Doo already knew some of them and Muffin learned from watching Doo how to sit on command, although Doo was never really good at the stay. Then when we got Biscuit, the other cocker spaniel, Doo was so sweet with him. Biscuit came home when he was just 4 weeks old and was tee tiny. When we took him outside to meet Doo she decided right at that moment the he was her baby. For two weeks she wouldn't let him go more than a couple of inches off the patio to go potty, once he was done she would pick him back up and put him on the patio. She didn't fuss at him when he tried to nurse or when he would chew on her ears and she would let him sleep on the top of her head. She watched over him for the rest of her days.
We always use to laugh because when it was really cold we could always find Doo in the middle of the back yard. However, in August when it was 100 degrees outside she would go into her dog house. This was something we could never figure out. When some of the limes from the lime tree would fall to the ground she use to love to pick them up in her mouth and chomp down. She would get the funniest look on her face. If nothing else it gave her lime breath. Her best friend happened to be our eldest cat Timmy. They met on day one. Timmy was about 7 months old at the time and he was still an outside kitty (though that changed when he was a year old). Their first meeting, Timmy was sitting on the table on the patio and Doo went up to say hi and Timmy swiped at her nose and drew blood. After that Doo was very gentle with Timmy and they were super tight.
Doo would have been 13 years old in June and she lived longer than we and the vet expected. When Doo was little she had to take some meds that the vet said would damage her liver and thus shorten her life span. Little did the vet know her love of life. People have asked where I came up with her name. Well one of my favorite foods is noodles but I didn't want to name her that. But after watching her for a few days I came up with Doodles, because she reminded me of when I was little and I would doodle on everything. Doo was the type of dog that was into everything.
Doo was dearly loved and will be greatly missed. The other "kids" don't understand death and have been looking for her which just breaks my heart. However, I know Doo is in a better place and is no longer in pain. Doo left her paw print on all our hearts.
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