Rosie

by Paige
(Jacksonville, FL)

...Her hive five, and million dollar smile

Rosie was the most wonderful first dog I had ever owned. She was sweet to everyone. There use to be this couple that walked by our fence, and Rosie would just stand on her back legs, and smile to them until they came over to pet her. She smiled... I miss it. But those last few months, she wouldn’t smile.. not once, she was in too much pain. It was a few weeks ago, but it stills stings thinking about how I will never see her ear to ear happy knowing face. Or hear her barks when she was ready to come inside. Or the way when some one approached her and she’d act tough, but when you got right up to her, she’d flip over and show her belly with that smile again, asking you to rub it with her eyes. I’ve never taken death well. I cried for a squirrel that was attacked by a cat, just randomly on the sidewalk. So having the dog I raised taken away from me in such a cruel way is just BREAKING me.

I taught her to sit, shake, TO STAND UP AND GIVE HIVE-FIVES. How many dogs have you honestly met that can do that? She was so special. I remember the day I got her I had another dog named Pete who had regular visits to the vet, so we were there picking him up. I saw a woman with a basket on her arm. Being the curious 5 year-old I was.. I had to peak inside. There she was, a tiny 3 week old Rosie along with her two brothers. I don’t know how it worked out. But we ended up adopting Rosie about 2 weeks later. My dad didn’t believe us when my mom and I said we were going to bring home a Jack Russell Terrier Puppy. So big surprise when he squealed almost stepping on her when he came home from work. She was only about 9 when we had to let her go. She had a progressing joint disease. She had the top surgeries, the therapy, the medicine. But she just… lost the will to get up. She couldn’t even go to the bathroom anymore. She went from the “Must pee in everyone’s yard!” To sitting on the ground, peeing, and then sitting in it until some one came outside to get her.

She didn’t deserve it.. No dog should deserve that. Running is in her blood. She liked to run and hop, and at one point I was thinking about renaming her to the more suited name as Bunny. Not being able to run, after being bread for it.. I can’t even begin to understand how mad it probably drove her.

My parents set a day to put her down, and I cried from the day they told me, until a few days after it happened. It was a Friday, I was about to leave for school, but I stopped remembering today was it. I sat by her, and pet her softly on the head, but she growled.. She growled at me! She was in that much pain…At that moment I broke down. I couldn’t get up, so I just sobbed. My dad let me stay home because I couldn’t collect myself. So I fell asleep next to her. But when I woke up, she was gone. I didn’t even get to say goodbye, just like that, I won’t ever hear her again, smell her, (she always smelled like wet dog, even right after a bath) see her huge brown eyes.

I won’t ever forget her buck teeth or her smile.. Never.