[Dailydrool] August 5th calendar pic

[Donna Lindy]

That's my 16 paws on today's calendar page - except
that there's only 12 paws here now.  Our beautiful, one-eyed
bossy cookie girl, Pw Miss Pauline, went to the Bridge to be with
sweet Dudley, Chuck and Bob on June 18th.  Today would have
been her 13th birthday - Happy Birfday angel girl. I hope you will
have cake AND cookies today and that you have a snazzy hat to
wear at your party. I hope you are keeping those long ears of
yours cleaner there than you did here at home. . .  but I would love
to wash them for  you just one more time.

I've had to push my grief over losing Pauline aside for the past
few  weeks so I could deal with other major issues but every
time I open the pantry door and see that big bag of cookies, I miss
my girl.  She may have been a pwincess on the Drool, but she was
the queen of our house and of my heart.  I adored her from the first
moment I laid eyes on her -  my  husband never even asked me if I
wanted her, he just handed over the extra $ and put her in the car
with Elmo. She was 7 months old, two months younger than Elmo,
but she bossed him around like she owned him - fortunately, Elmo,
being the laziest of bassets, never minded that she told him what to
do.  And she gave him a little reminder every day after dinner with
a little humping after dessert.  Elmo never cared about that, either.

In her later  years, she wasn't terribly naughty the way she used
to be but she never missed an opportunity to steal cookies from
the pantry - the door just had to be not quite closed. I think she
checked it just about every time she walked by it. She stole
cookies at the BHRG Bash last fall right out of her Auntie Jean's
tote bag and managed to open a sealed bag of treats with a
few of her long eared friends watching and waiting . . .  she loved
to sneak past the gate into the front room and have a snooze on
the white couch that was "off limits" to the girl who sometimes ate
dirt and always managed to drag her long ears in something at
least dirty or even bordering on gross.

While she loved her hats (or was it the attention and cookies they
got her?), my husband says Pauline was more of a tom boy. But
she was a confident girlie who always proudly announced her own
arrival at both the eye vet and the regular vet.  She also immediately
took the chair for the human in the exam room.  At the eye vet, the dr.
and I would move the chair (with Pauline in it) nearer to the equipment
for her checkups.

Pauline was a great sleeper - last year she fell asleep during an
ultrasound our vet was doing on her heart.  But even in the
deepest of sleeps she could hear the crinkling of paper or
plastic - there was no getting around her and her cookies. And
when you'd call out "Has anybody seen Pauline?" she'd pop up
out of her bed and come running.  She was terrified of thunder,
lightning, heavy rain, fireworks, hammering and other loud noises.
We tried the anxiety wrap, Rescue Remedy, Chlomicalm,
desensitization (or whatever that word is supposed to be), you name
it, we did it.  But she  always preferred to be under my computer desk,
panting and slobbering on my legs and shoes.  Elmo still takes care
of that for me. . .

Pauline was a decisive girl and I guess when she was feeling so bad
she decided she wasn't going to fight any more.  She fought glaucoma
and a few other issues throughout her life but she must have known
she couldn't win this one.  And so when the time came, we let her
go on her way on that sad day in June when the sun was shining
just  a little too brightly and the sky was a just a little blue - and  
all
those people in their cars - didn't they know our lives were changing
forever in the blink of an eye?  Saying goodbye to Pauline was one
of the hardest things I've ever had to do - she was one of the great
loves of our lives. Happy Birfday, Miss P.  We'll miss  you forever.

Donna, drool fueler for Elmo, Gracie and Pw Bosley, forever missing
Pw Miss Pauline