Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend

Today I say goodbye to an old friend - my dog, Mix. He was about 12 years old. Pretty old for a dog. I came home last night and found that he had passed away sometime late yesterday evening or last night.

Mix, a blue heeler - for those of you outside of Texas, he was a cow dog - was my only male dog out of the three. He was my buddy. When he was younger he would jump and catch a frisby in his mouth. Later when we lived in Terrell, Texas - a farming and ranching community east of Dallas - he would jump in my Trooper and off we would go to see friends. All it would take would be a tip of my hat towards the back door and he would quietly meet me there so as not to let the girls, Dakota and Sadie, know the boys were up to something and off we would go. He loved riding in the front seat with with the window down. Doing like a lot of dogs do - sticking his head out of the window and his nose into the wind. He even got to go run and play in the nearby pastures with a real life Hank the Cow Dog. One of his favorite thing was to chase a tennis ball as it bounced on and off the roof. He would play until he got tired then he would take his ball and go lay down - literally.

Mix loved kids and loved to be loved on. When the girls would have enough of me petting thiem they would go lay down. Mix would always stay beside me - whether he was sitting and letting me pet him a little while longer and just laying down at my feet.

When it came to yard work, though, as soon as I began he would go lay down as to say, "That makes me tired." When I would get upset at the dogs for doing something, he was usually the first to come to me with his pitiful looking eyes and, in his own way, ask for forgiveness and show me some love. He was unique. . .a unique find. . .a one of a kind.

Mix will be missed. It just won't be the same in the mornings without picking up the food he has pushed out of his bowl with his nose or, like this morning, just passing out two milk bones instead of three. I still have Dakota and Sadie. They are doing fine. Both are still very active. Then there's the cats, Lucy and Ranger. They're OK as well - I mean. . .they're cats.

A couple of lessons I could learn from Mix:

• How to forgive
• How to love unconditionally
  
• How to be a friend
• How to have fun - cheap
• How to just hang out and enjoy life
• Don't be afraid to venture out - just remember where home is - we all gotta eat
  

So with that I say this, "Mix, my buddy, thanks for the great times, thanks for being a great friend, and thanks for being a great dog."

Mike