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.

Hattie Mae and her Pack are our September 2, 2012 Pups of the Week

They say you don’t recognize a good thing until it is gone.  Even if the being gone is only for a short amount of time, your heart aches, you pant more, you lose your appetite.  Absence makes the heart grow weary.

This week we have been without the wit and wisdom of Hattie Mae, Jackie Lynn, Fella and Smartie and it has been a hard week.  Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad if we knew they were away on vacation somewhere without the Internet, like the North Pole, but when it’s a vacation we know it will end soon.  When someone is hurt or injured and the return date is open ended it is so much harder.

None of us ever want to be put in a kennel when our families go away, but when our parents can’t take care of us because of illness we don’t know if we will ever escape this dark, dank place it’s so much worse.  And that’s where we are with the Hattie Mae clan.  In a dark, dank place.

Hattie Mae is the shining light of our group.  She is our everything diva.  She’s hard when we need a laugh and soft when we need a tender touch.  She’s the lollipop all lollipops want to be and the lollipop that the boys wish they didn’t have their nuts chopped off over.  And Jackie, who is learning so much from her, and Smartie and Fella are missed so much as well.

Many of you don’t remember life without Hattie Mae.  We first met her in the early days of DS.  But there were some mean dogs there and Hattie beat a hasty retreat.  When we took a short stop at a Ning site she joined then the bad dogs showed up again and she, and soon the rest of us, were gone.  When we started TB we tried and tried to get her to come here but she said that she was done with social networking.  Thankfully we wore her down and since then she has been  our ray of sunshine.

We have been lucky enough to get brief blogs from her keeping us informed of what is going on with her Mom.  Also there was the terrible scare when Lou ee thought he had stuffed her in a bag and killed her but like most celebrity death reports this one was a hoax.  Now if we can only get Lou ee to come out of hiding.
So we are hoping that Hattie’s Mom’s arm heals soon and we can have her back every day.  We need her sunshine in our lives.

If I haven’t conveyed it well enough let me just say Hattie, we are naming you and your clan Pups of the Week because we love all of you and we miss your witty quips, your kind words, your fabulous pictures, and the joy you fill our lives with.

Hopefully your Mom will be better soon.  Love to you all.

(A quick note on a sad subject.  Jack from Australia went to the Bridge this week.  He has been a TB member for some time but has not posted in a year.  Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.)

Smartie is our August 5, 2012 Pup of the Week

Last year Pocket and I went to see a marvelous show called Jersey Boys.  In it the character of the bassist for the Four Seasons, Nick Massi explains why he left the group thusly:  “When there are four guys in a band, and you’re the Ringo......”  When I think of Hattie Mae’s Pack of Four I think of a band with four members.  Hattie Mae is the John, smart, clever, the leader.  Jackie Lynn is the Paul, the cute one.  Fella is the George, the smart one (work with me on this one.)  And Smartie is the Ringo, the quiet one that we never hear much from.  But we suspect that Smartie has plenty to say, as his name would suggest, but not the gumption to fight the others for the limited family spotlight.

The fellowship of four and their parents have been keeping a secret to us of late: Smartie has been an ill little pup.  The first sign of trouble was when Hattie offered us some diapers because Pocket still suffers from excitable peeing, and gets excited a lot.  Why does Hattie Mae have diapers, we wondered?  Shortly we heard Hattie Mae whispering in the Tanner Brigade cathedral to heal her sister Smartie and give her parents guidance.

No one pried,   Hattie is a Jack Russell terrier, and they don’t like being pressured.  Finally, when she felt ready, as we all knew she would, she informed us of Smartie’s illness.  The family first noticed it when the little beagle stopped eating.  If you know a beagle they never stop eating.

Then Smartie began having accidents in the house.  The vet did what vets do.  They start with the most likely answer, a urinary tract infection.  But Smartie did not respond to the treatment the way the vet had hoped.

So now the pack entered the horrible puppy health care torture go round.  You start with the blood work.  Mom pays the bill.  The doctor says they know no from the blood work.  Mom pays the bill.  They run x-rays.  They find nothing.  They order more tests.  Mom pays the bill.  They got sent to a new hospital, one with an excellent reputation.  They took more blood, they did an MRI.  Mom pays the bill.

But, thankfully, the merry go round ended there.   Smartie was diagnosed with Stage III Chronic Kidney Disease  With a new diet and medicine Smartie took a turn for the better.  She was acting like a pup again, playing with Jackie Lynn, smacking Hattie Mae.

But then she went back to being one sick pup.  More tests showed the disease was progressing.  Also her red blood count had dropped quite a bit.  Her Mom and Dad decided they could manage her care with her being poked and prodded for the rest of her days.

Smartie is home.  She has accepted her medicine, her diapers, her pee pads.  She is working with Jackie Lynn passing on all her knowledge.  We don’t know how long it could go on for but your prayers will be appreciated.

I don’t believe that just because Smartie was the quietest that she wasn’t equal to her pack members or better.  Smarties has held her own council and lived her life out of the spotlight.  Not a life for me but a life I can respect.  

So tonight when you go to bed think of the quiet, loyal, proud dogs like Smartie and know they mean to their families.  Because without Ringo they would have just been a bunch of guys with guitars, long hair, and no rhythm.  

It’s the Ringos that hold the pack together.