Saying Goodbye
Early in the morning of Friday, July 9th our sweet dog Pumpkin Pie passed away. We knew something was wrong Thursday night, but we thought it could wait until the morning and we would take her to the vet. We were wrong. Pumpkin passed away in my car on the way to the emergency vet. They think it was heart failure. Even if we had gotten her there in time, it is unlikely they would have been able to save her and we would have had to make the heart wrenching decision to put her down.
Pumpkin was our first baby. We adopted her in July of 1999 to keep me company while Russ worked. We were newlyweds and I was not used to being home alone overnight. I needed a dog not only to keep me company, but to make me feel safe. We found her through a newspaper ad for Cockapoos. Since we lived in an apartment at the time we needed a small dog. I think I knew right away that Pumpkin was not a cockapoo, or at least not all cockapoo. She was the most unusual dog I had ever seen, mostly black with a white topcoat and brown speckles on her legs. The white topcoat eventually disappeared leaving her mostly black with some white speckles. We fell in love with her instantly. There was no way I was leaving without her no matter what kind of dog she was.
Fortunately, before Pumpkin was too big to live in our apartment, we bought a house with a big backyard. At our apartment complex there were a lot of tenants with dogs and we would all meet out in the courtyard after work to let them potty and play. When we moved, I worried that Pumpkin would be lonely so we adopted an Australian Shepherd named Dollie. Everyone we asked had a different opinion on Pie's breeding, but one that we heard often was Australian Shepherd. We wanted to get another dog similar in size so they could play together. We later learned that Pumpkin was definitely part Heeler. It wasn't until after her death that we did more research and decided she was probably a Heeler / Cocker Spaniel mix. Dollie ended up being just the right size to play with Pumpkin. Those two never could decide who was the alpha. In the end they compromised; Pie was the alpha when it came to toys and balls, Dollie was the alpha when it came to food.
Pumpkin's great love in life was tennis balls. She would have played ball for hours if we'd let her. We often took her and Dollie to the park by our house to chase balls in the field. Dollie tried to keep up, but I have yet to see a dog who could run like Pie. When I was very pregnant with Jonathan I spent a lot of time lying on the couch. Pie would bring me a ball to throw. I couldn't throw it far inside, so Pumpkin invented a new game. She would catch the ball in the air. Eventually, we perfected this trick so that she could catch a ball thrown all the way across the field.
to be continued...
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