She Was a Great Dog...

We said goodbye to Cinder today - after 12 1/2 years with us. It's going to be very strange without her around. For those who wonder, she was 13, and had gotten Lymedisease. By the time we noticed, it was impacting her kidneys, and was no longer curable. She did her best to hang on, but her time was up.

She was an amazing dog - too smart to train, you just had to ask her to do what you wanted and she would. She obsessed over Will & Satchel - I can remember more than a few times, waking up to use the bathroom in the wee hours of the night, and finding her staring at one of their bedroom doors, just waiting for them to get up.

She used to come to work with me, when I worked at Axion. She would run on the sidewalk and wait at the intersections, and I would ride my bike in the street. She was terrible on a leash, but perfect without one. I used to love how she'd make all the other dog owners at the dog park jealous, because all I had to do was say "Cinder, let's go home" and she'd walk right to the car -- while they'd be struggling to catch their dogs and wrestle them home.

Next to watching Will & Satchel, she loved "herding" dogs that were retrieving a ball. She'd beat them to the ball, circle them as they brought it back, and then crouch, waiting for the next toss. It only really worked with obsessive retrievers - some dogs would give up because they thought she wanted the ball, and she ALWAYS got there first. But they were wrong - the ball came a distant third in amusement value. She'd fetch one, but only if there were no dogs or kids around.

It was almost impossible to get a photo of her - she was always MUCH too busy herding the kids, and if she saw you pointing a camera at her she would move off and herd them from the other side, out of your way. All the photos I have of her are incidental - she's usually just on the edge of the picture, staring at the people in the center of it.

She won the "fastest dog" medal at the local dog olympics our Humane Society put on about 8 years ago. She used to just turn on the afterburners and she could beat any dog. We were smart: we positioned myself, Will & Satchel at the finish line. Then, instead of just calling her when they said "go", we took off running away. Whooooosh! She won hands-down. I used to pretend to race her on the field and laugh at myself, because she was so dang fast.

When the cat was little (and we still had two of them), one time I heard crazy running downstairs. I went to investigate, and found one kitten asleep on either end of the couch. And Cinder, running back and forth from one end to the other, staring at one kitten, then running to stare at the other. Even Max the cat will miss her.

When we adopted her, she was just the skinniest, most frightened little thing - and how lucky we were that we got her - she turned out to be an amazing addition to our family.

Good bye, Cinder. We'll miss you.