Goodbye, Rosie!

Today I had to take our beloved dog, Rosie, to the vet to be put to sleep. She was a central part of our lives for almost 9 years. We adopted Rosie and Taffy in October of 2000. I had just gotten my job at STA Travel so we knew we'd be staying put for a while. I talked Kevin into going over to PetSmart to look at the dogs up for adoption from local shelters. As soon as I saw Rosie and Taffy, I just knew we had to take them. They had been abused and abandoned, and when they found Rosie she had almost given up. They had to keep them both at the shelter for almost 2 months since they were in such bad shape. Kevin didn't want two dogs, but I convinced him that they would keep each other company while we were at work. I remember in those first few months we would watch them for hours as they wrestled and played. It was so amusing to us. It was a hard time, too, because since they had been abused they were so scared of other people. But eventually they came around and we had so much fun walking them all over Gainesville, taking them hiking to San Felasco, and taking them with us to visit our respective parents in Tampa and Jacksonville. They truly were our kids. We moved to Colorado in 2003, and those were the best years of their lives (even though Taffy is still with us, those were definitely her best years, too). Our first year out there we lived in an apartment adjacent to an enormous city park. Rosie got to go there almost every single day. She and Taffy would run and tackle each other. Well, it was Taffy doing most of the tackling. Then the house we bought the second year was 4 blocks from a nice park, and we went there almost every single day, too. We took them hiking on trails that allowed dogs off leash, and they had the most fun ever. When we moved back out here in August, I started taking Rosie and Taffy hiking again. We got to go on several before I noticed Rosie wasn't recovering as well as she used to. She was standing funny and dragging one of her feet. That's when she was diagnosed with neuro mylopathy, a disease that causes her to lose feeling in her legs, and ultimately the ability to walk. So these past few months her condition deteriorated so rapidly until this past week, when we realized she was only walking about 5% of the day and was losing bladder control. So I wanted to post some pictures of her in the good old days, because that's how I want to remember her.



Rosie enjoys getting her butt kicked by Taffy.





On one of her favorite days at the park.





Chilling on the couch.





One of the rare occasions she got the Frisbee from Taffy.





She didn't care much for balls or Frisbees, but sticks were a good substitute.





Her favorite position on the couch.





She loved the snow so much.





Another happy day at Roland Moore park.