Within the past 30-plus years, we’ve felt so fortunate to share our lives with four awesome furry friends.

Bartles and Jaymes were bother Schnauzers.

We had no intention of coming home with two dogs the day we walked passed the pet shop and saw those two black and gray little furballs huddled together.

We stood and watched them for a while then decided to go in and just hold them for a few minutes…..that’s all, just hold them.

I’ll bet you guessed it…..

We left that shop with two new members of our family.

Jimmy had physical problems his entire life but he was happy.

His Vet told us something once we never forgot.

He said our pets aren’t like us, they don’t grieve what they don’t have.  

If they have only three legs, they learn to walk with three legs.

If they’re blind, deaf, whatever…..they accept and keep on movin’. 

They don’t stop and give up or feel sorry for themselves.

They do their best with what they have.

That’s what Jimmy always did.

When his Vet had done all he could do, when the Neurologists in Santa Cruz had done all they could do and when the well-known animal hospital school of medicine in Sacramento, UC Davis could do no more, we brought our boy home on loads of medication. 

The doctors all said the same thing…..he’d tell us when he was ready and, one day he did with his eyes.

But, WE weren’t ready and we held on way too long.

The day we finally let go…….well, if you’ve ever had a furry friend, you know.

We took him to our favorite spot on the coast where he could walk free and pee on all the piles of seaweed.

He ate a bowl of his favorite treat, ice cream and then it was time to go.

He was known and loved by his Vet and staff so he had no fear when they took his leash and walked him back and ended his little life at 12 years old.

We went back to the coast and we cried.

We made a PROMISE TO JIMMY that day that we’d never, EVER keep a pet longer than we should just for US.

We knew it was selfish, we knew it was wrong but it was also LOVE.

We were in the process of relocating from the Coast back to Sacramento. 

I begged Bartie to wait til we got back to Sac and he did…..barely.

Shortly after we were back, he stopped eating.

He’d eat a little bit of ice cream if I fed it to him.

He lost weight, he became very weak and all he did was sleep.

His Vets could find nothing wrong and were convinced he missed Jimmy too much and became depressed.

One day as I tried to spoon feed him some ice cream, he looked up at me with his big brown Schnauzie eyes and there was no doubt in his message….he was done…..he wanted to go.

The evening we said good-bye to our Bartie, the Vet walked us outside.

It was dark and the sky was lit with stars.

She told us to pick a star and call it BARTIE’S STAR and when we were lonely for him, look up and talk to him.

And that’s what we’ve done for all these years.

We still talk to Bartie when there’s a dark sky with stars.

We decided to go petless.

That lasted maybe 6 months.

There’s WAY too much for me to try to tell you about our wild, crazy “Lincoln.”

I have written a 10-part tribute to him and you can find it at suefoneunplugged.com “MR LINCOLN.”

We were packed and ready to leave the next day for a week get-away to the Ocean.

I chased Linkie around the house like I did every morning.

He loved to be chased.

He ran hard and then…..he lied down and he never got up.

Lobo scooped up his limp body and Linkie looked into his eyes and without a sound, we heard his message.

We hurried to the Vet but it was too late.

Linkie was gone.

He was 13 years old.

Then we were three…..Lobo, LooLoo and me.

LooLoo is the only girl we’ve ever had.

She was the biggest and has a long tail.

If a waggy tail is an indication of happiness, then LooLoo was the happiest Labradoodle ever.

And, she’s the most beautiful.

But of everything perfect about her…..it’s her heart.

LooLoo has THE MOST LOVING HEART.

She has NEVER caused us a moment of anything but joy.

I cannot tell you all about LooLoo now…..maybe one day.

LooLoo is 14 years old and we’ve watched her slow down since the end of last year.

We could see what was coming.

We had an emergency with her 2 weeks ago.

She was put on 12 pills a day and the problem resolved.

However, it’s left its mark.

She struggles to give us one little tail wag.

She doesn’t want to go out and get the paper or the mail with Lobo, she doesn’t want to take her morning walk with us, she doesn’t want to hold her BABY or her bright green tennis ball anymore.

She doesn’t eat and she pants louder and louder each day and all through the night.

Yesterday she talked to us with her eyes.

ALL DAY! Because we kept refusing to hear what she was telling us.

She wants to go.

She’s ready.

We’re NOT!

We’ll never be ready, NEVER!

But, we remembered our promise to Jimmy.

LooLoo has always feared the Vet.  She loves the people, but hates going inside.

Our Vet is not allowing people inside with their pets because of the Covid Monster.

We will NOT let her go inside for that final time without us and so,
this afternoon, we’ll sit outside of the Vets office in their grassy back yard and we’ll say our last good-bye.

And, she IS our last good bye.

Seems as time has gone on it’s just harder and harder and we can’t handle that kind of pain any longer.

The love has been wonderful and those four furry friends filled our hearts right to the top and even overflowed.

We’re now able to talk about Bartles, Jaymes and even Linkie without tears flowing every time and we know one day we’ll smile and our hearts will warm with memories of LooLoo but…..not today.