Dear Katie,
It’s been said that pets in our family are the “lucky ones”, adopted by the “right” family. But when it comes to you, Katie, WE are the ones who are lucky. Lucky because you loved us with all that your little body could muster. Your little butt shook from your half-tail wagging so hard to greet us.
You loved us when we were sad, tired, sick, and angry, every day of every year of each of the near 17 years of your life. Unconditionally, without stopping. You only wanted to please us, to give us a little snort or a lick, or to jump up onto our legs when we walked in the door. How many times did we say, “Katie, I’ve only been gone 5 minutes, you act like you haven’t seen me in weeks!” We were always so proud when people would say “Oh, what a cute little puppy!” and we’d say “She’s no puppy, she’s 10 years old!”.
We were SO lucky to have you in our lives for as long as we did. In the end, we did what we thought was best for you, though they were some of the most painful moments in our lives, we did it for you and we knew we had no other choice. You were always good, never snobby or misbehaving, always obeyed and happy to oblige a request from any of us.
We’ll always remember your under bite, your stinky fur, your sideways trot, scratching the carpet to “fluff” up a spot to (not) lay in, the puppy who’d been stung by a bee, dropped on her head, poisoned, the dog who’d been sprayed by a skunk (twice), fell down the stairs, put up with 5 new and different cats, your wet nose with a snort on our bare legs, sitting at the start of the hallway squirming and yelping because you wanted to get to us, shaking off after a bath/swim and your back legs leaving the ground, then rolling around on your back to get “dirty” again, when you got spayed and the anesthesia made you fall over while we were eating dinner, snipping your “bangs” so you could see between haircuts, your silly ribbons that you’d try for days to get off your ears, covering your eyes with your paws while you played with us, furry ears flapping in the wind (sometimes inside-out), bringing your food piece-by-piece into the room to eat it “with us”, and flipping your bowls when you were out of food or water.
We’ll always love you, Katie-Girl, Katie-Kates, Kates, Katrina, Kay-deeeee, Puppy. Just as you always loved us.
Katie Richardson – 4/1987-2/29/2004 –
Always in our hearts,
| Katie |
| 29, Feb 2004 |
| The Richardson Family |