Taylor

April 1998- February 13, 2010

Taylor passed away last night, and I truly believe she is in a better place. 3 weeks ago we found out that she had a tumor on her spleen and that she had liver cancer. She did better for awhile after medication but over the past 3 days it was apparent that her much to short life was coming to a close. After we found out her diagnosis we fed Taylor all sorts of human food, took her on more outings, and for more car rides. We wanted to make sure her last few weeks were easy for her. Of course, I think she may have cursed us out a bit since we hardly ever fed her human food but she was damn sneaky and has eaten plenty of human food when she was able to get to it.

When you buy a puppy your life is filled with a fuzzy bundle of joy that has puppy breath and they wouldn’t think twice about chewing on your expensive black pumps. It can be frustrating but one look at you with those puppy eyes and you melt and forget all about those pumps. You train and teach that little guy to follow commands, doodie outside, sleep through the night and give unconditional love. During that time of bliss (and some times patience stretching times) you don’t consider that a dog has a life expectancy of 10-16 years. Honestly, who likes to focus on the sad times when you are smack dab in the middle of the good times? But I am a firm believer that if those years that you had with that dog are wonderful and full of unconditional love then it is worth their shorter life span. My life was better with my animals, especially Taylor, by my side.

I don't want to dwell on how she was over the past month, I want to focus on the happy 12 years that she was in our lives. I went through some pictures and found some that I wanted to share with you! I do want to share one story that only a few people know.....

We had the house sprayed for bugs one day and we put the dogs in the back yard while they sprayed in the house. Well, I didn't realize that the bug guy didn't latch the side gate and the dogs got out. After about 5 minutes I realized that I didn't hear the dogs so I went out to check on them. My heart sank when I realized that they were gone. I ran out front, saw the mailman, but didn't see the dogs. Once I got to the street, I saw the dogs about 5 houses down. I whistled and Chewie came back running and Taylor kind of jogged back. I know what she was thinking "okay mom... I'll come back because you asked me to, but I don't really want to so I am going to move slower than Chewie". Once I got them back into the yard, I realized that Taylor was pawing at her eyes and she couldn't open one of her eyes. I wasn't sure if she got bug spray in her eyes or if in the short time she was out she scratched her eye ball. But then it dawned on me.... the mail man. Shit. I went out and found him and asked if Taylor had approached him. He smiled and said yes. He was across the street, saw the dogs in our front yard but then figured they would just stay there. Nope, not my dog... he said that once she saw him, she sprinted across the street (thank god there were no cars driving by) and came at him. He sprayed her with pepper spray and that was enough to deter her. Thankfully she never got close enough to him to bite him. I went back to the house and washed her face off... after about 10 minutes she was back to normal. After that day we put locks on the gates to make sure nobody could leave them open without our knowing.

So even though she had pepper spray in her eyes, she still decided to do a little tour of the street rather than come home to get fixed up. This story sums up Taylor.... one tough bitch but she had a huge heart and loved everybody she met (well... not the mailman)

She was always on alert... she was our guard dog and didn't think twice about barking at anybody who got to close to the house (or on many occasions, even if they were pretty far away from the house)

On Christmas, my dad gave the dogs a squeaky toy. Taylor LOVED her toy, however it tormented Chewie and he was deathly afraid of it. Taylor would fling that toy around, chase it and fling it again. We had to make sure we were out of the flight path of the toy because it hurt when it hit you!

I can't remember the exact reason I put a sweatshirt on her,,,, but she didn't seem to mind it. But she kept stepping on the arms, which caused her to trip.

Taylor and her little brother Chewie. Even though they weren't lovey dovey (even through Chewie tried and tried) I knew Taylor loved Chewie. She always came running when he barked and they were always close to each other. Taylor just wasn't a fan of when Chewie tried to lay next to her... guess the girl liked her space.


Laying out in the front window, watching the world go by.


Me and the kids... I wasn't successful of getting very many self portrait with the two of them.

Taylor loved the water. We tried getting to the Bull Creek dog park as much as we could during the summer, so they could run around and play. Chewie didn't love the water as much as Taylor did, but he always followed his big sister into the water. Eventually he became more comfortable swimming around.

Me and the kids

She was always smiles for the camera. She was a ham and when I had the camera out she would come running (unless she was off patrolling the yard looking for bad guys)

She was relaxing after my dad came over with his puppies... they wore her out! I think she picked this chair to sit in because the puppies couldn't get up with her :) Normally she liked to sit on the couch

Checking out dad laying on the floor

One of the few times that Taylor would actually let Chewie rest on her.

Sleepy Taylor!

Once again, happy in the water... look at that smile!

As I said above, Taylor loved human food! She was a frequent helper in the kitchen (which in this picture was in the beginning of our remodel). Here she is hoping that my mom would give her a couple of scraps. She ALWAYS preyed on the new people in the house. She would give them her sad eyes, she would paw at their feet/legs to get them to either give her a treat or take her outside. She had the "I never get any attention, will you give me some" act down... she should have received an Oscar. :)