Saturday, May 12, 2007

Joyeux Anniversaire Tessiekins!


Today would be Tessie’s 15th birthday. She was a German Shepherd/Collie cross that our family got when Carlynne and I were in grade 5. We weren’t looking for a dog for ourselves, but we were looking for our grandparents. They lived on a farm in Saskatchewan and were in the market for a dog, so we said we’d keep an eye out. They really liked golden retrievers, so we called the Humane Society and asked them to let us know if they got any in. When Grandma and Grandpa were visiting, we got a call, so we headed to the Humane Society. The girl who called actually made a mistake. She thought Tessie looked like she had golden retriever in her, when really she didn’t. Oops. Best mistake she could ever make! Grandma and Grandpa fell in love with her right away, so we brought her home with the intention of driving her to the farm next time we visited.

That never happened.

As soon as Grandma saw us with Tess, she knew she’d only ever see Tessie on the farm for visits. Us kids fell for her hard and fast. She was such a beautiful dog and so much fun! She loved snuggling up on chairs/couches/beds...

...she would do tricks for a blade of grass (SO cute), she loved laying on the living room floor with her head resting on the windowsill as she watched what was going on outside...


...she heard our school bus come from blocks away and would race around the house in anticipation of us coming home, she always had a thing with tall men and barked incessantly at them, she LOVED joining Carlynne and I on our paper route (for all of the 10 years!), her tail never stopped wagging, she looked so cute snuggled in her dog house...

...she let me cry against her neck many times, she would lick away my tears, she loved peanut butter, she drank out of the toilet (when it was clean)...


...she hated lightening, she saved our house from being burned down, she wasn’t a fan of baths, she was so patient with kids, she was super cooperative, she had her hyper moments and her calm moments, every year she would shed like crazy on a random schedule, she looked SO cute when wet...

...she would knock (perhaps it was more of a scratch) on the basement window when she wanted to come inside...


...and she was generally an incredibly awesome dog.

We had to put her down last August because her age was catching up with her. This was VERY hard, but at the same time, we were happy that she was no longer in pain.

She was my Buddy and my Boo-Boo and I miss her!!!!!!!

3 comments :

shareen said...

awww, Julie, Tessie looks so cute in all those pictures. I miss her too.

When did she save the house from burning down?

Lowell & Julie said...

We were babysitting Micah and he was downstairs alone with Tess. She started barking, and we thought it was odd (as Tess was so good with kiddies), so we went downstairs (not sure why Micah was down there by himself to begin with!) and he somehow got a hold of a lighter and was playing with it. TESSIE SAVED THE DAY! And that's how she saved our house from burning down :)

Anonymous said...

Awwwww...you're making me weepy :)