Izzy's BFF

Ever since Izzy was this big her BFF was a black lab 8 months older named Libby. (I love this picture of her, this is the one I saw and chose her from) 

We brought Izzy home from her pack and the first dog she ever saw was Libby.

Those two played like crazy. We live a block apart.

Libby was a crazy dog. Not the least bit mellow like Izzy.

Izzy takes to her commands, Izzy can walk without a leash and Izzy doesn't eat anything she is not supposed to.

Libby is the exact opposite. In the time I have known Libby she has eaten a 1lb box of See's chocolate, glitter crayons, a $10 bill, a tube of poison ivy medication, a BOX of goldfish including the bags, 2 doz. chocolate chips cookies just to name a few. 

The chocolate chip cookies were the day the owner knocked on our door and said, Can Izzy come out and play so Libby can run this energy off?

The poison ivy medication made her so thirsty, it was drying out her insides.

The glitter crayons I saw first hand what they did. We were at the park together and I saw her go and I asked Jackie, her human mom, why her poo was sparkly and she said she ate a couple of glitter crayons. Oh my gosh, this dog is crazy.

She never gets sick either. She just eats everything and anything. She is goofy too and that is hard to explain but she was most certainly goofy and that was her charm.

Once Jackie and her boyfriend came down for a few drinks. I had food all over the coffee table and we chatted and ate. She kept saying, 'Won't Izzy go to this?" Nope. She will put her nose in the air and smell it, she may even stare at it, but she knows she can't have it. But ole Libby would have eaten everything so quickly she said we wouldn't have had the time to move it.

I didn't doubt her.

Every morning during the school year (Jackie is a teacher) I see Jackie in the morning at 5:30a with Libby. The dogs get so excited. If Jackie isn't out, Izzy will stare at their house and I swear she wills Libby outside. On our lunchtime walks, we go by Libby's house and she has to pee there to let Lib know she was there. Then she goes to the sidelight of the door and they look at one another. The tails are wagging and it's so cute. I hear the same thing from Jackie about Libby looking for Izzy and smelling her and pulling her in that direction.

Two weeks ago Izzy was smelling the grass and then looked up the street. I thought what did she smell? I see Libby and Jackie coming around the corner.

I asked if Libby had just peed there and she said she did indeed. I said apparently Izzy knew this. Then the two greeted each other and they were happy.

Jackie told me that Libby has had urine in her pee and they think she has a UTI and put her on medication and everything seems okay right now. 

We talked about our older dogs having issues going up the steps now and that sort of thing.  This past Thursday as Rick and I sat down to dinner we got texts.

Libby had a mass on her spleen that was bleeding into her stomach. They felt there was nothing to do for her. They had to put her down the next day. 

Needless to say, we didn't eat dinner but instead went down to Libby's house.

Jackie is a single mom with 2 girls. The oldest just left for college and the youngest is 15. Their dad walked out when the girls were very small and the girls got a dog. The 4 of them (including Libby) are the tight-knit family you would want. They are beautiful inside and out. It's been just "the girls" for 11 years with Libby. They were going to go pick up her daughter at college so she too could be there with Libby for the last night. As Jackie said this dog got them through all the difficulty of Dad leaving. This dog means everything to the girls. 

When we got there Libby wasn't really moving a lot. She greeted us and her tail was wagging. She did what she always does to Rick and goes between his legs and he rubs her butt above her tail and she just loves this. Then she laid down. 

We just loved on her and all told the funny stories of Libby. She and Izzy are very well known in the neighborhood and all the things they did together. It was so sad. Not a dry eye in the house except for Izzy.

I was shocked that Izzy didn't know she was dying. I thought for some reason she would instinctually know this. But instead, she was just jealous of Rick loving all over Libby and giving her all his attention.  For some reason that bothered Rick and I. But we can't train her to feel emotions, it's not like she is human. But as I have said about Izzy before if she were human she would be a Mean Girl. Loves getting affection from everyone but doesn't want to give it back to everyone, she is selective, or a bitch, either way, you want to look at it. 

Friday afternoon they put Libby down. We brought them a photo we had of her that I had framed. I know come spring they will have a new puppy. But right now everyone there is crying and big ole Rick was in a puddle himself. We all loved that dog. It just reminds me that Izzy is old too and that day will come for us too soon.

I will tell you now, I will be a fucking mess. 

I love this crazy fur baby. My house may be cleaner when she's gone but I'll take the dog hair and muddy paw prints any day just to keep her a bit longer.

I wish dogs didn't have such short lives. 

The human loving, people pleasing dog lives a short time. 

Not fair in my book.