Dogs // Current TV

The last couple of weeks have been a sad time for me and Riga[German Shepherd].

Dixie was our best friend. We had to put her to sleep a couple of weeks ago. She was getting sicker, and she was not going to get any better. We had to send her on to the Rainbow Bridge to wait for us there. It has been a big adjustment for Riga---she was never away from Dixie more than a few minutes her entire life. And for me, I never went anywhere that Dixie and Riga didn't go too. Dixie and Riga traveled more than most people in their entire lifetimes.

This is a post about Dixie I put on a German Shepherd Dog forum about 4 years ago. It pretty much sums up Dixie. Dixie would go to meet everyone she saw-----and everyone she met was her friend.

-------------" There are some large open lots and fields next door to the motel that Dixie, Riga and I are living at right now. Adjacent is a large parking lot where truckers park their 18 wheelers and either sleep in the cab sleepers or stay in the motel. There are woods and tall weeds covering about half of that lot--and next to that across a drainage ditch that has creek running through it is a large field with tall grass and trees. There are perhaps a dozen or more homeless people who live in the woods behind the truck lot.

Every morning and once or twice during the day I take Dixie and Riga over to the empty lots to run. It is convenient, and I don't have to do a lot of cleaning up.
The homeless people are usually hanging around, and Dixie(miss social butterfly) has to go meet and get attention from everyone she sees. So I get a lot of compliments on what wonderful dogs they are, and everyone has to tell a story about how they had a GSD or knew a GSD once that was such a great dog.

This morning---it's bright, cloudless, and there is frost all over. I heeled Dixie and Riga through the motel and stopped at the office, put them on a stay outside the office while I paid for the next week. It's a usual routine---and Dixie and Riga are perfect even without commands(they know what to do). Lots of people are coming and going----and most of them pretty much ignore Dixie and Riga---a few make a wide berth around them(for no reason other than their own preconceptions).
So, I finished my business at the office, and we heeled across the parking lots to the open fields and woods. I gave them the OK GO, release, and they were both off like shots off into the woods. They were back a few minutes later, and I let them run a little.
As we were just leaving, there was some shouting and a guy waving at me---about 75 yards off---so I waited while he hurried over. It was Jay, one of the homeless people who lives in the woods around there. He said Dixie and Riga had come to their campsite(they live in tents) to greet everyone and give them kisses and get some petting. He had come out all that way just to tell me thanks for bringing them over---they all loved starting the day with a warm GSD greeting and attention.

I thought to myself that on a GSD scale, you are a much better person if you live in a tent in the woods and give them attention and affection than if you drive an Escalade and have Gucci luggage and ignore them."------------------

My Dad used to say, "Try to live your life so that when you have to go, everyone is sorry to see you leave."

By that definition---Dixie led one of the most successful lives ever.

Goodbye Dixie---we will all miss you very much.The last couple of weeks have been a sad time for me and Riga[German Shepherd].... more