Rest In Peace - Dickens

Today we had to have Dickens to sleep. It turns out her major problems were that she had a progressive neurological disorder that had affected her esophagus. Her esophagus lost its ability to move the food down to the stomach and so things were just sitting there. I last saw her on Sunday and she looked so bad. After the vet called us last night at 11:00 P.M. with an update we talked it over and decided we could not put Dickens through any more. This was verified today when the vet told us the treatment we were trying was not working.

Dickens will be cremated. We have moved 4 times since we got married. So we did not want to bury her in the backyard and then leave her here. We have no connection to the dog cemetery in Land O' Lakes. So instead we will place her on the mantle and take her with us where ever we go. When we die she will be buried with us. As will Siggy.

Our dogs are part of the fabric of our lives and marriage. When I met Susan, she had a rough coat Jack Russell Terrier named Tally Ho. At the time my wife was a Quarter Horse riding coach and trainer and that dog went with her everywhere. She was very special to Susan. However on our wedding day, Tally Ho was run over chasing an animal across Lutz-Lake Fern Rd. (A typical Jack Russell death). My wife was heartbroken but we still got married. Or honeymoon took us to several cities in Florida and everywhere we went we looked for Jack Russells. Finally on the last day, we went to the Ocala Horse Show grounds with some friends. As we walked in, we met some guy selling two Jack Russells from the back of his truck. One was Siggy (Short for Sigmund in honor of Sigmund Freud because I am a psychology major) and his sister Delilah or Lilah for short. We bought them both

A year and a half later we ran into the breeder (Bill Slaughter) from whom Susan had gotten Tally Ho. He had another litter coming up between Tally Ho's father and Tally Ho's maternal aunt. He knew Susan's story about Tally Ho and he gave us the pick of the litter. And in this litter we found Dickens. Being related to her first dog, Dickens became very special to Susan. More so than Lilah could stand and she tried to kill Dickens several times, even with a muzzle on. So Lilah went to live with a nice older couple who could give lap dog Lilah all of the attention she needed.

So our entire married life we have had Dickens and Siggy with us. When as in all relationships we have had moments when we were not feeling so close together, our dogs would bring together because of one of them being ill or because of some of the silly and cute things they would do. For a while they would always run full steam into something so we had a run of eye scratches. Dickens had cancer twice and the first time 6 years ago, she had to have significant surgery. In addition they have been part of Susan's work. Our dogs have been models in Susan's artwork. In fact our vet has a mural Susan painted for them, and Dickens is in it. She is the Jack Russell in 3rd panel on the right. (Erhlich Animal Hospital on Gunn Hwy, just north of Ehrlich in Citrus Park/Odessa). It is hard to imagine life without either one of them.

We will miss Dickens. Fortunately we have lots and lots of good photos of Dickens. One of my side jobs has been to act as a photographer for Susan's portrait painting business. I used to practice on our dogs. The digital camera we got last year made it even easier.

One of the things I learned from her business and that people don't have good photos of their animals. Several times we would be given photos to paint from and they just would not give us a good sense of the pet. Sometimes they were fuzzy. Mostly the image of the dog was too small. So do yourself a favor. Go out and take some good photos of your pets. Get close ups, so you can really see their personality. Take some outside so you don't have to worry about flash red eye. Skip the posed formal photos. That is not your pet. Take photos of them doing what they do. That's what you remember. Some of my secrets to good candid photos. 1 Take your time. Let them get bored with you and so they forget the camera. 2. Bend, kneel squat or lay down to get the images straight on rather than these funny angles. 3. Take plenty of shots, if you have a digital camera what are you wasting? Then do something with the photos. We had our friend at the Beck Gallery do framed collections of our favorite photos of each dog.

We like to think of Dickens as now being in heaven with little angel wings chasing angel winged squirrels, waiting for us and Siggy. We know that we have given Dickens a good life and we appreciate the gift she gave us or herself.