Colby Dog Spaulding – December 15, 1996 – September 18, 2010
IN LOVING MEMORY
So, 14 years ago Mark and I decided it was time to once again get a dog. We had just moved to Colorado, and had been ‘dogless’ for over a year. Our plan was to visit the Animal Shelter every Friday at lunch time to find that ‘right dog’. And so we went every Friday for a few months. Then one day, we were perusing the classified section in the newspaper and saw an ad for ‘Cute, Fat, Cuddly puppies – FREE’. This caught our attention, and we called. They had one left. We dropped everything and went to their home. Come to find out, they were trying to breed their purebred Bernese Mountain Dog. They tried a stud service, artificial insemination, you name it – nothing worked. The minute they gave up, an Aussie jumped the fence and wooed their pooch! And thru that wonderful romance we were given the gift of our dog. So, as we spoke to the owners – Mark was holding this awesomely cute dog – they bonded immediately. Mark had the nerve to look over at me and ask, ‘So, what do you think?’ – Needless to say he came home with us. Fate was obviously on our side. Colby integrated into our lives flawlessly. He was always good with our kids and grandkids. He was smart beyond measure. We made sure he was people friendly, but probably to the extreme. He was around people more than any dogs, so he didn’t speak ‘dog’ very well. But he sure did speak people! When we would ask him if he wanted to go for a walk he would start yipping, but then the weirdest thing would happen – he would start using his tongue as if he was trying to talk!! He had a doggie door and sometimes we would put the cover on and forget. He would come to our bed and bark at us, then run into our bathroom and then run back out and bark – like, ‘Hey I need to go potty’. He greeted us everyday at the door after work. If one of us was didn’t come in right away, he waited at the door until ‘his pack’ was complete. He followed us everywhere in the house. If we were sitting on our front porch, he would go out back and yip for our attention to get us to go out back instead. It’s absolutely incredible how much ‘space’ he took in our lives. Our kids are moved out, so he became our child. I can still hear him breath at night. I still watch where I step when I get out of bed, he always slept next to me. I can’t open a package of lunch meat without thinking he hears the package and he’s on his way! He was the eternal optimist. It is good to think about him, even with a broken heart. His presence was huge, his absence is a vacuum. He was our buddy and we miss him terribly.