I’ve been putting this off here because I don’t really know how to put everything I feel into words right now, but she deserves to be remembered so here goes nothing
Two days ago, on August 1st, I said goodbye to my soul dog. Stella crossed the rainbow bridge right around 11:15am after being a part of my life for eighteen years and three months. Who gets that kind of luck with a dog?
I remember she was born on May 1st, only a few days before I moved into my new place the next state over. Her mom, Bodie the bichon frise, was my own dog (she lived to be 17 too!) and her dad, Jake the toy poodle, was a foster fail of sorts who wandered into our life and back out of it fairly quickly. She was one of four in her litter, and even before her eyes were open fully she was showing her curious side more than any of her siblings. She would squeeze out of the tiny gap under the edge of the counter by the whelping area we had set up and do her best to explore our kitchen floor.
As she grew she loved to get into trouble with her sister Flora, and later her brother Ozzie and baby sister Sunny. They would all chase each other back and forth from one end of the house to the other, sprinting with the zoomies. Stella would even follow me into the bathroom whenever she could, nosing the door open just enough to squeeze in and ask for scritches even if I was only trying to pee, dog, haven’t you heard of privacy? even as I’d laugh and pet her anyway before shooing her back out. She’d lay by the closed door and stick her paw underneath, just lay and wait there until I was done otherwise.
In the winter when it snowed and the shoveled pathway left a big pile at the end in our yard, she would always be the first one to run down the side and faceplant straight into the snowbank. That is one heck of a sight to see the front half of a ten pound grey blur disappear into a pile of fresh snow!
She survived a major surgery for a ruptured mammary tumor at age 12. All of her few remaining teeth were removed after we discovered she had cracked one of her molars somehow despite not being a big chewer. She developed tumors in her ear and had them removed a year ago when she was 17, and only after that did she end up losing what was left of her hearing. Her vision followed and even though she wasn’t able to get around as easily as she used to she still was a lovey old lady who spent most of her time sleeping next to her bed in our bathroom.
Before she lost her hearing, she used to love it when I sang along with the theme song from Star Trek Voyager to her, or even just sang it by itself for no reason, just watching me with the most enthralled look on her face.
If you tried to hide pills in peanut butter she wouldn’t take them and she didn’t trust peanut butter by itself if I’d made her take a pill hidden in it recently. Her favorite snack food was Hormel brand uncured hard salami. She loved French fries, or Stella snacks as we called them for her.
Stella, you were the sweetest heart in all the realms, my companion, my fur child, my friend. I will never forget you, my sweet baby. I miss you so much. Rest well now knowing that I will love you forever.
