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

First came Bartles and Jaymes, brother Schnauzers.

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

We stood and watched them for a while.  We felt sorry for them so decided to go in and 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.

They were great. If you know Schnauzers, you know how intelligent they are.  As a matter of fact, from their personalities we decided had they been human, Bartie would have been an attorney and Jimmy a physician.

We lived in a Coastal town for much of their lives and they loved walking the water every day.  Not many locals knew our names but everyone knew Bartles and Jaymes.

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

His vet told us something 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.

He was 12 years old 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 at the University of California in Davis could do no more.

We brought our boy home on loads of medication and 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 the heart pain.

We took him to his favorite spot on the coast. Once he ran up and down in the sand stopping to pee on every pile of seaweed he could find.

But those days were gone.  He struggled just to slowly walk, not seeming to really care.

We stopped at his favorite ice cream shop.

Jimmy could down a small vanilla cone in a heartbeat. Oh how he loved ice cream but, no more. A few quick licks and he was done.

We couldn’t put it off any longer, no more reasons to stall.  It was time for him 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 of 12 years.

We went back to the coast and we cried.

We made a promise to Jimmy that day.

We promised we’d never keep a pet longer than we should just for US.

We knew it was selfish and wrong but it was also love.

A year later Bartie wasn’t well.

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

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

Shortly after we were settled, he stopped eating.

He’d eat a little bit of ice cream if I spoon 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.

That evening we said good-bye to our Bartie.

Afterwards, his 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 filled with stars.

After losing our two boys, we decided to go petless.

That lasted maybe 6 months. 

My days off were lonely. I missed having another life in the house with me.

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

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

Or, I think he still has his own facebook page…..Mr Lincoln.

If you want to laugh a lot and maybe shed a few tears, please read his story.

It was September of Lincoln’s thirteenth year. 

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

I chased Linkie around the house; from the living room, through the kitchen, through the family room and back to the living room.

It was our morning game. 

He loved to be chased.

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

My sweet husband scooped up his limp body and held him in his arms.  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.

Much like Jimmy, Linkie had medical problems his entire life. 

Often we joked that his vet bills could have been a nice down payment on an ocean house.

We unpacked Linkie’s bag with his medication and toys and we went to the coast to work it through and accept.

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

LooLoo was the only girl we ever had.

She was blonde, big and fluffy with a long tail.

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

But of everything perfect about her…..it was her heart.

LooLoo had the most loving heart ever and she never caused us a moment of anything but joy.

LooLoo came into our life out of necessity.

Lincoln was a year old when something had to change.

He was a horrible dog.

We knew nothing about Terriers when he became our furry son other than he had the cutest face ever.

Often, it was that cute face that saved him.

We thought that maybe he was lonely, maybe he needed a friend…..but who?

He wasn’t a mean dog…..just horrible (read his story.)

If we were going to get him a companion, we knew another male would not be a good idea so we’d have to find a girl.

She’d have to be bigger than him so she could protect herself.

We had one condition, a non shedder.

A big Poodle?

Nah, a poodle would just ignore his antics.

And one day we found her on the internet, not far from our house.

An 8 week old Labradoodle.  

We named her LooLoo before we ever saw her.

We fell in love with her the moment we set our eyes on her and it was mutual, we could feel it.

When we brought her home, she was small enough to walk underneath Lincoln.

We built a large fence in the garage to keep her safe from our killer Terrier while we were at work each day.  

We were afraid he’d hurt her.

But she grew quickly and soon she was taller than him…. much taller.

They were a perfect match, quickly becoming best friends. 

LooLoo’s easy going temperment handled Linkie’s craziness with ease and when she’d had enough, a little growl and show of her teeth backed him right off.

 One day I may tell their story.

LooLoo began slowing down last year when she turned 14 years old.

We watched and we could see what was coming.

We had an emergency with her health.

She was put on multiple medications and we thought the problem resolved.

However, it’s left its mark.

She wasn’t our LooLoo anymore.

She’d struggle to give us one little tail wag.

She didn’t want to go out and get the morning paper or the mail with Lobo.

She didn’t want to take her morning walk with us, and she always loved walking with us.

She didn’t want to hold her BABY or her bright green tennis ball anymore.

She didn’t pop up between us on the sofa each night while we watched TV.

She panted louder and louder each day and all through the night.

She licked her front legs until they were saturated.

She tried to tell us every way she could.

We lied on the floor with her every night trying to console her.

She KNEW we were concerned so she’d hide from us.

It was horrible sad.

And then one evening, she turned her head and looked up at us from the floor.

And, she told us with her eyes.

She wanted to go.

She was ready.

We were not!

We were never gonna be ready… NEVER!

But, we remembered our promise to Jimmy.

LooLoo had always feared going to the Vet.  

She loved the staff, but hated going inside.

It was March and our vet was not allowing people inside with their pets because of the Covid Monster.

She was NOT going in without us!  There was no way we’d let that happen.

The afternoon of our good-bye, we met our vet in the backyard of the clinic.  

It was a hilly area with thick green grass and lovely wild flowers growing.

There was a pink ruffled dog blanket spread on the grass waiting for us.

We told our sweet girl to lie down on the blanket and as always she did as we asked.

We lied down with her, one of us on each side and our arms wrapped around her.

She was scared.

She looked to Lobo and he told her she was OK.

The first injection the vet administered was to calm her.

She fought it.

We kissed her, we thanked her for all the years of love she’d given to us and the happiness she’d added to our lives and we whispered our good bye.

She listened intently as she always did, understanding so much of our  human words.

We promised her the moment her beautiful feet touched the Rainbow Bridge, she’d see her crazy brother waiting for her on the other side.

We gave her extra kisses for Bartie, Jimmy & Linkie and we told her it was time to go to sleep.

And, she did.

We decided to leave before the injection that would send her on her way.  

Our hearts were about as heavy as they could get.

We sat in our car in the parking lot and sobbed.

And then we went home without our girl.

It’s been over half a year but it seems as time has gone on it’s just gotten harder and harder.

The love and laughter they gave was wonderful and those four furry friends filled our hearts right up and over the top.

We can now talk and laugh remembering things about Bartles, Jaymes and even Linkie without tears.

We know one day we’ll smile and our hearts will warm with memories and we’ll talk of our sweet, sweet LooLoo but………………..not today.