Smartie is our December 16, 2012 Pup of the Week

Smartie was left on the side of the road. She wasn’t named Smartie at the time. I don’t know what she was named, or even if she had a name. We don’t know who dumped her there. She never talked about it. Least as far as we know. Maybe, as she got older, and sicker, and knew her time was near, she told Jackie Lynn, just so the young pup would know how special it is never to be abandoned, never to be alone, but that’s just conjecture, Jackie Lynn, having learned well from her mentor, would never bark a word if Smartie had.

Aunt Darla, known in the dog world as Hattie’s Mom, and her husband Jerry, better known as Elvis, were driving on the same road. I don’t know where they were going, or why they went that way, I just know they were supposed to do it, that some hand, either from our Heavenly Father, or from the Bridge, or both, guided Hattie’s Mom and Elvis, down the road where the not yet named Smartie waited having been told by the Bridge Angels, the Heavenly Father, or both, to sit still and wait, her family was on the way.

Aunt Darla and Elvis ahead. Smartie turned and looked at the car wondering if they were the people who she was waiting for. Aunt Darla and Elvis stopped, brought her into the car, then into their home, and then into their hearts. However unlikely it was as if the pieces had snapped into place and Smartie was in her forever home. (Dear humans: If you take a wrong turn, or a different way home, don’t turn around, you are just on the road you are supposed to be on, and if you turn around you will miss the reason you are traveling that way.)

Smartie was a Daddy’s girl. Most dogs gravitate to their Mom but Smartie went to her Dad. Smartie adored her Dad, as he did her. Together they were able weather what was was soon to become a Diva factory. Hattie Mae came to live with them and a star was born. Soon the little fashionista was wearing out dresses faster than her Mom could make them. Every dog knew Hattie Mae’s name.

But there was no sisterly rivalry between the two. Smartie wasn’t one for the spotlight, she was like the older Kardashian sister who didn’t want to be on television, if such a thing existed. While Hattie was posing, posting, blogging, chatting and commenting Smartie was just happy to stay snuggled up on her Dad’s lap.

Not that Smartie didn’t enjoy a good time on the Internet now and then.  Smartie was on the handsome paw of Bikset at the first DS prom. I like to think them tonight, on one of those clouds above, they are young and dancing again like they did at their prom.

When Jackie Lynn came to her forever home Smartie did not show a hint of jealousy. In fact she took the young pup under her wing. Jackie Lynn called Smartie her mentor.  And what a wonderful mentor she was because Jackie Lynn has grown up to honor her namesake.

Smartie began to have accidents in the house in May. Her Mom, knowing as much about dogs as anyone we know, knew that this was trouble. Smartie was in the beginning stages of renal failure. During some dogtor visits her numbers were up and we rejoiced, at other times they were down, and we prayed. But the truth was our silent friend was in a steady decline.

But she fought to stay with her Mom, with her protegee Jackie, with her brother Fella, with her sometime nemesis Hattie, and her beloved Daddy. But the body just gave out, as all of ours will someday. She could no longer live without pain, no longer eat, drink, or enjoy life, and her Dad made the difficult decision to send her on her final journey.

Like Buck a few weeks back, Smartie was another quiet dog, but no less loved, no less cherished, and the hearts that loved her don’t break any easier at her passing. To me she was a giant, a piece left on the side of the road, a piece that had been unable to fit into the original puzzle, but ended up, after an act of cruelty, being found by the right family, and she snapped into their puzzled lives, making their picture, and family whole.

I hope you are enjoy your dance with Bisket my friend. If I perk up my ears and listen carefully I can hear the music, and if I shut my eyes I can see them dancing, at Rainbow Bridge, where the dancing, the prom, and the music never ends.