Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Pepper, my sweet puppy

Monday, September 24, 2012 I get home from work and Ozzy, my mini Australian shepherd, greets me as I get out of the car.  I'm like great, he dug out of the back yard AGAIN.  He sporadically does this.  He goes right into the house which means he's been out a while and has expended some of his energy.  I go to let Pepper, my wire hair terrier mix, inside and she isn't out there.  Ozzy dug a deep enough hole that she got out, too.  She never crawled out when Ozzy dug out until this week.  I start to panic because she didn't greet me as well at my car.  I talk to some neighbors and walk around the neighborhood.  Then I get in my car, turn onto one of the main roads which is frequently busy with people going WAY too fast and find her, just 2 houses down, dead on the side of the road.  My poor, sweet puppy, Pepper.  We've only had her 2 years and 26 days.  She was about a year the vet estimated when we adopted her.  She was so submissive to everyone and everything.  We lived in an apartment when we first got her.  She loved all the neighbor dogs but she would roll over on to her back regardless of the age or size of the dog she met.  Her buddy was a great dane.  We'd drop her off at my Dad's, now our house, on the weekends to play with Dad's 2 dogs.  She'd be so pooped on the way home that she'd pass out in my lap in the car.  It was so cute!  We got a cat, Rocco, next while in the apartment.  Before Rocco, she had a stuffed rabbit that she would carry all over the apartment with her.  She LOVED Rocco and he LOVED her.  She'd play with him and make all sorts of playful growly noises.  He didn't care when she pulled him by the tail across the wooden floor.  When we bought the house we adopted Ozzy so she'd have a playmate who could go outside with her while we worked.  They would ZOOM all around the backyard, catch squirrels and lizards, roll around on their stash of dead critters to get all smelly, and poke their heads in and out of the cinder block wall (doggy buffet ... or rather critter buffet as there wasn't dogs in it but critters).  Ozzy doesn't care to play fetch.  He'll go get the ball, but his favorite part is playing keep away from Pepper.  She didn't care about the ball, either, she just liked to try and get it from Ozzy.  They'd zoom even more around the back yard while Ozzy deliberately fumbled the ball so Pepper would keep trying for it.  As soon as you'd let her in the house, she'd completely ignore you and make a beeline for Rocco.  The play growling would commence while Rocco flopped on his back and just lapped it up.  Pepper also loved to do the belly crawl across our carpet.  Pepper eventually gained her confidence.  She was such a sweet and pretty doggy.  Our hearts are broken.  I love you, Pepper.




1 comment:

  1. I am so sorry for your loss. Being a pet lover myself I know how devastating it is when we lose one of our "kids".
    I feel like I knew Pepper from all the stories you've told me and she seemed like an incredible dog and I know she realized how loved and blessed she was.

    ReplyDelete