Our Cousin Riley is Moving on and Moving Up

This is the story of my cousin Riley who moved away.  Riley has blogged now and then, when his sister Bailey went to the Bridge, when Neely joined the Brigade, when his sister/Mom Maddie hurt her leg and was sad that she couldn’t dance.  Now Riley has moved on to a new forever home.

There were some problems with Riley.  She was a mismatched dog in the wrong house.  Riley is a boxer who needs lots of exercise not to be crazy house dog.  But with two working parents and two young humans in the house Riley didn’t get that exercise time and she became crazy house dog.

Then there is our eight year old granddaughter Meghan, who does not like to be called Mini Mae (which her soccer coach calls her), or Meggie Mayhem because she causes so much mayhem (we stole this from Cocoa’s Mom) or Fred, which Daddy calls her because she doesn’t like being called Fred and he’s the kind of Papa who likes to make his little granddaughters mad and then wonder why he has teeth marks on his arm, she has allergies that are caused by pet dander.  While Neely is hypoallergenic, as well as being freaking hyper, he does not cause Meghan to sneeze or make her eyes water,or to bloat up like the Stay Puff Marshmallow man, it was determined that Riley did, through no fault of her own, those thing to happen.

There also were problems between Riley and Neely.  Riley is a big dog, a Boxer, and Neely is a small dog, a Shih Tzu, and, as is so often the case, the little dog was scaring the living Vick out of the big dog.  Since Neely arrived in the home in April he has been cited several times by Judge Grey Hound for dog on dog crime including humping Riley while she was lying in the sun and often mistaking Riley’s leg for his chew toy, which the big girl took in good humor, but she started to lose fur around her ankles.

Finally at the end of last week, given the problems with Meghan’s health, and Riley not being able to reach his full dog potential with his current family, Riley’s parents began to look for a new home for her.  Much like with Molly Mae she found a home with two boys who would like nothing more to play with her, another big dog in the house, and parents with time to give them long walks.

We didn’t spend a lot of time with Riley.  I think we spent one night.   She didn’t bother us much.  She drove Mommy a little crazy.  Whenever my parents were at their house for supper Riley would go under the table, find Mommy, bury her face in her crotch and let loose a week full of slobber.  Mommy would stand up with a dripping crotch and everyone would say “Oh Mommy!” and she would say that Riley had slobbered all over her but on one believed that.  I think she did it to Daddy too but he enjoyed it.

So now Neely is an only dog and Riley is on to her new life.  I know it was the right decision for everyone involved (even though Pocket is more paranoid about Neely than ever, thinking if he can get rid of a big dog he liked what could he do with a little dog like Pocket?)  

But don’t forget your little Yorkie cousins Riley.  You will always be in our heart.