Farewell and Adieu to our Sweet Girl

As a pet Mom or Dad, you know, deep down in your soul, that unless you're adopting a tortoise, you will most likely outlive whatever sweet little booger you just brought home from the pound or rescue organization.  Knowing this, and having to go through it more than once in the last few years, still didn't make it easier to say goodbye to our sweet Kaylee girl this past Tuesday.

On the beach at Point Mugu,

January 2018

In her last few months, she'd gone fairly blind and potentially deaf (or at least, she acted that way when we were calling her to do something she wasn't interested in...), and we suspected there may have been some significant neurological decrease as well.  Because of this, she started showing symptoms of late onset separation anxiety; she never had this problem as a puppy or adult dog, but once it started getting harder for her to see and hear, anytime we'd leave, even for a quick run to the grocery store or the gym, she'd pace unceasingly and destroy things in the house (she loved to target Chris' beautiful bar cart, knocking over bottles - thankfully, booze bottles are damn sturdy - and smashing glassware).  Eventually, she'd pass out from exhaustion (we think part of her problem settling was also due to pain from arthritis in her hips - it hurt her to get up and sit down), but we knew that wasn't healthy for her.

Since mid-December, we'd had her on anti-anxiety meds, and while they'd help sometimes, at other times, they didn't seem to do anything, given how powerful her concerns were.  We went to see friends for dinner on Monday night and during the three hours we were gone, even on meds and with all of her triggers (gates, kennels, etc) removed from her space, she tore her nose apart pretty terribly by chewing up one of our dining room table chairs.  While we thought about taking her back to the vet for stronger meds, we knew they'd likely just make her comatose, and we'd be keeping her around for our own benefit.  We made the hard choice to say goodbye, and we miss her terribly.

However, instead of dwelling on her no longer being with us (at least too much), the purpose of today's blog is to celebrate her life.  As those of you who met her knew, she was a great guard dog and could be a little standoffish toward strangers (she's always been on the high-strung side, hence the anxiety not being a huge surprise when it happened), but for those of us who knew her best, she was a freaking delight.

We brought her home on February 7, 2006 from the Casa Grande Animal Shelter when she was about 9 weeks old.  I remember heading to the shelter to see if we could procure ourselves a kitten; as I've told many folks before, I'm really a cat person, but since Chris is super allergic, we find ourselves with canines instead.  I fell in love with this sweet orange tabby, but on our way to lunch to think about things, Chris' eyes swelled up, his throat started to close, and we knew we couldn't bring a cat into the family.  It was back to the shelter, just to - you know - randomly check and see if any puppies were available.  Well, one was.  This little bundle of mess:

As you can see, she was tiny!

Here she is, already following Luigi everywhere.

She fell in love with Weej immediately, even though the feeling didn't always seem mutual.

"Ugh!  Mom!  She's sleeping on me again!"

This is about 10 weeks old

At the time, there was a huge field next to our neighborhood in the CG (there are a ton of condos there now), and we'd take all three maniacs out there to romp around and burn off some energy.  Bella and Weej would go tearing around, and Kaylee would try to keep up; although she was pretty quick, she couldn't figure out how to run in a straight line, and she'd diagonal all over the place, eventually ending up at her destination.

Going her own way - 

11 weeks old

See?  She always loved him.

 Like all puppies, she grew exponentially, and soon, she'd be just as big as her big brother:

16 weeks old

Throughout her life, she loved to play Frisbee (not so great with fetch with a ball), squirm on her back and fall asleep with all of her legs in the air, and adventure with all of us, including hiking on Casa Grande Mountain.  She was also okay around water, but she wasn't the best swimmer; she'd start out after Bella (who was pretty much a fish - that's a lab mix for you!) and once she figured out she wasn't doing well, she'd grab Bella's collar with her teeth and get a tow back to shore.

At Canyon Lake in May 2006 - 

she's the one on shore with Chris

"Ooh, guys!  I don't know if I like this!"

She's on our left there,

the one looking like she's drowning.

On her first hike in early 2007

She's all over the place,

while her smarter, older sister stays on the trail

And so we end up here.

Ah, de-cholla-ing the dog.

Every hiking dog owner's delight in AZ

Ah, that's right.

Someone taught her it was okay to hop in laps

in these chairs and the chair at the desk.

This led to a funny instance at the vet's office once - 

she was taken into the back for shots,

and when she saw her favorite vet sitting in a rolling desk chair,

doing paperwork, she bolted down the hall,

leaping up and landing in the vet's lap,

much to her surprise (the vet's - Kaylee knew what was coming).

They used the picture of the surprise lap visit

on her chart for years.

The epitome of the Kaylee/Weej experience.

She's so stoked to be next to him,

and he's so angry.

Her beloved Luigi passed away in early 2008 from cancer, and although we pondered having just two dogs for a while, we quickly brought someone else into our home:

As you might imagine, she quickly showed Harley who was boss, even though he outweighed her by about 100 pounds:

Training class graduation.

This really is apropos of nothing,

but you gotta love a picture of a dog in a mortarboard.

Kaylee loved to shove herself into the tightest spots possible for sleeping, and this wasn't an uncommon sight:

Just to be clear,

that's her head bent 90 degrees from her spine.

Of course the kiddos came with us when we moved to the Peoria house in 2011, and she loved the bigger space, although she could never figure out how to work a flight of stairs.  She was fine on the way up but would normally end up thundering down them way too fast, wiping out at the bottom.  We put a baby gate at the bottom of the staircase immediately after moving in and kept it there during our entire time in the house.

"It's okay that I can't work stairs,

right, guys?  Look at how cute I am!"

I must have gotten my new DSLR camera in 2013, because these glamour shots are in the folder from that year:

I don't know what's going on out here, but obviously, it is interesting:

This dog also loved chewing up sticks in the yard and rolling on dirty clothes (sweaty running clothes were her favorite - shudder):

In 2016, we made the biggest move yet in Kaylee's life - from Arizona to CA - first, to the rental house in Glendora, and then to Long Beach.

On some really good meds for the trip to CA -

she eventually loved riding in the car,

but she wasn't always the best.

We'd pull up somewhere (vet's office, dog park),

and she'd start screaming in excitement,

like some sort of monkey being tortured or something.

We turned heads.

All cracked out at the rest area

Made it to Glendora!

A squirm in action in the LBC

If you're reading this because you followed the link from Facebook, you know that the kiddos also started starring in Telecommuter Tuesday posts around this time.  When Bella passed in August 2016, it was just Kaylee and Harley left, and Harley passed the next March.  Kaylee was on her own, until we brought this little monster into the family last November:

Kaylee says this is where she prefers Zoe to be

Bringing Zoe home brought the old girl's spark back again for a short time, but eventually, her other issues caught up with her.  We hope we gave her a good 13 years of life, traveling all over and romping around with her brothers and sisters.  We'll miss her!

Later!

Amy