Bye Bye, Little Soph Soph

June 10, 2016

Here is who Sophie was…

She was the happy little dog anxiously anticipating her “daddy” every time she heard something store outside.  She was the OCD puppy who couldn’t eat unless everyone was home and all her toys were perfectly arranged around (and sometimes in) her food bowl.  She was the one who told us all it was time for bed by standing in the doorway to our master bedroom.  She was the one who sheepishly hid after peeing where she wasn’t supposed to or getting into the trash or chewing up underwear.  She was the “little forest creature” who was much more of a person than a chihuahua.  She was the dog who for 10 years never gave up trying to sneak under the fence to freedom.  She was the one who most always hid her bones for later and then only found them much later when one of us decided to move some clutter.  She slept behind our knees – Jeremy’s first but mine as second best.  She was my dependable ball of love when everything else for so many years was sorrow.  She hated to be dressed up, although she would have been the cutest little deer at the ball.  She sat with Jeremy always, even when Selah June three things at her and yelled at her.  She was his companion through thick and thin.  She worried for he baby.  She followed the baby for food droppings.  She took second stage when the baby demanded all of our attention.  She loved the sunshine and the grass.  She didn’t like other dogs at all.  She was stubborn, never taking a pill without a fight.  She had an endless supply of kisses (for everyone except SJ – though you could get her to give her one reluctantly).  She was the baby’s first word.  She was the first creature we were blessed to love for more than two years.  When others had children, we had Sophie.  Jeremy spoiled her, and we both loved her terribly.

She was strong.  As cancer aggressively ravaged her body, she let it without even a whimper.  She walked through it with us by her side.  She trusted us as we daily dressed her wounds.  She hated the vet’s office, and I hated that she spent the last moments of her life there.  I spent those moments nose to nose with her and gave a piece of my heart to her to take on her way out of this world.  Our world is a little bit smaller because she is gone.