Good Bye Dusty

This is a post I knew I would have to eventually write but it still doesn't make it any easier. Yesterday I had to say good bye to a member of our family and a faithful friend. We were together for almost 16 years and I am thankful to God for every moment we had together.

Dusty was a very special dog and I don't say that just because she was mine. I think if you ask anyone who knew her they would tell you the same.

I wish I was better with words to give her an appropriate tribute but I can't so all I can say is that I will always love her, I will miss her incredibly and I'll never forget the impact she had on my life.

Dusty,
* I will always remember the day I picked you out at the North Richland Hills Humane Society. You were the only one awake among your brothers and sisters and I just knew you were special.

* I will always remember you sleeping in my lap on the trip home from the Humane Society and thinking you were going to be a calm dog. I was wrong about that. :-)

* I will always remember how you loved to play ball. You could always out last me and I would end up kicking the ball because my arm was getting tired.

* I will always remember our walks together.

* I will always remember sleeping on the couch with you during those stormy nights.

* I will always remember how you loved to play with a rock and a shoe.

* I will always remember how good you were with Seth and Chase.

* I will always remember all of the trips to Kansas City we made together and how well you traveled. You were always so patient.

* I will always remember the feel of your cold nose on my cheek.

* I will always remember the frantic call I got from Shelley one day needing me to come home because you had a rat and wouldn't put it down. I assumed you had found a dead one in the yard but I was surpised to find it still alive. How you caught it I'll never know.

* I will always remember how Jeff Nickerson's laugh would always excite you.

* I will always remember how you greeted the Jehovah Witness's that one morning and amazingly they never returned.

* I will always remember the sound of your scratch on the back door when you wanted out.

* I will always remember how you loved uncooked pasta.

* I will always remember our morning routine of me making my lunch and you eating one of my carrots.

* I will always remember how you loved to play tug-of-war.

* I will always remember you making "spit holes" in the carpet and how it just drove Shelley crazy.

* I will always remember how like Houdini you could escape from your kennel. I will always wonder how you accomplished it.

* I will always remember how you would hide under the bed when something scared you.

* I will always remember how you ate the window sill in the apartment and tore up 2 door frames in our rent house.

* I will always remember how you just loved to lay in the yard and smell all of the smells of the neighborhood.

* I will always remember how you loved to fight with Shadow, Shelby and Sheena.

* I will always remember the time I almost burned my apartment down how you greeted me at the door, wagging your tail and holding a ball as if nothing was wrong.

* I will always remember how you got bit by another dog when Shelley was walking you and Shelley and you ran all of the way home and we thought it might send Shelley into labor.

* I will always remember right after we brought Seth home from the hospital and I was just learning to take care of a baby. When he would be with me and start to cry, you would run into the room and look at me as if to say "Do I need to go get Shelley?"

* I will always remember how you were there for me through two marriages, one divorce, the birth of Seth and Chase, through layoffs and promotions and every other significant event in my adult life.

I love you and will miss you.

(Shelley wrote a good post that you can read here.)