The end of an era...

Almost 13 years ago, E and I had a dog named Sadie who, in my opinion, needed a sister/playmate.  E was not so sure. So instead of looking for a puppy, I went to volunteer at the SPCA.  Needless to say, Sadie got her sister/playmate in about two weeks.  It might have been about a month, but regardless, Sadie got what I thought she needed…and hated it.  Apparently, Sadie really didn’t need or want another dog in the house.  She especially didn’t want a small, energetic puppy who wanted to play and bite on her all the time. 

But look, they were so cute!!

Sadie turned from a crazy puppy to an old dog on her second birthday.  It was sort of incredible how she calmed down from one day to the next.  Based on this experience we expected the same thing with Jasmine.  Well, we were so wrong.  Jasmine stayed energetic her whole life.  She could still run, climb stairs, and jump into a car the day she died.  That is not to say that she stayed healthy.  She was our bionic dog.  She blew out one knee in Germany when she was just 3 or so.  $1000 later, we had our sweet energetic dog back.  All she needed was an expensive food supplement to make sure that her knee didn’t get sore.  We also had a promise that the other knee would probably blow since it does usually happen to both knees.  This meant that even after recovery she had to give up her favorite sport-Frisbee.

Making her give up the Frisbee was hard, but at least she had the German fields to run in without a leash.  Unlike Sadie, Jasmine loved nothing more than running and being near us.  She could be trusted to be off leash and come back regularly.  Poor Sadie loved food much more than us, so she had to be kept on the leash most of the time!  The only real problem we had related to the Frisbee was a leash.  Sometime after her first surgery, we got Sadie a new retractable leash.  Unfortunately we bought a blue one which apparently made Jasmine think it was a Frisbee.  It took us about a week to figure out that the reason why Jasmine kept running circles around me during our walks and biting at the leash was that she thought it was a Frisbee.  We actually had to get rid of that leash. 

The dogs were our constant companions.  They went to Germany with us, of course. 

They also made it to Italy...

and France.

We moved back to the States and Jasmine thought that a good time to blow out knee #2.  This is when E and I found out how much more expensive US vets were than German ones: at least double, if you are wondering.  That was Jasmine.  She was very healthy until she wasn’t.  I always thought that she would go like that too.  I didn’t think she would have a problem like Sadie’s that went up and down and up and down.  Jasmine would go quickly.  And I was right. 

 We moved to NJ and the house had no fence.  J was good most of the time and stayed in the yard.  But other times she decided to explore.  I am sad that I didn’t stop her, but I couldn’t keep that dog on a leash at all times.  That would have been heart breaking for everyone, every day.  So, I didn’t and last week she left at night.  She never left for more than 20 minutes.  Thursday night she didn’t come home at all.  I knew what must have happened, but I tried to keep the faith.  The morning brought reality-we weren’t dog owners anymore.  I miss her, even her craziness, a lot.  I still hear her tags clanging on her collar when I move (she would always jump up when I got up) or when I open the door.  Unfortunately, she is not there. She was a very good, faithful dog.  She loved us very much!  She is so missed!