A Tale of Three Sisters

by Kay Beason
(Albuquerque)

A Tale of Three…Sisters

Fourteen and one half years ago my friend, Linda, and I got in the car and drove to Ft. Collins, Colorado to choose a puppy from a litter of five. One stood out. One stood up. This is what happened.

The puppies were, as all puppies are, just too cute for words. Little schnauzer pups with funny eye brows and a pompom looking ball of fur around their mouths. One just looked more alert than any other. That was her! We would take that dog home to be with our elderly Keefer for her final years. She was perfect in every way and we could tell it was true. But then, there was another… Her ears were funny, stuck straight up. They were thin and pink inside and shaped like the leaves of an artichoke but bigger than the rest of her. What about her?

Well, “she can’t be sold”. Her ears are wrong and she is small and not as pretty as her sisters. She would go to a family member in Minnesota who agreed to relieve them of her. Minnesota? Isn’t that where it is cold and damp and thin little ears freeze in the breeze? Too small? How can that be? So, nothing left to do but pay for two and go on our way. Two pups, one surrogate mother and two crazy ladies hit the road.

The little puppy with huge hears had huge lungs and screamed all day, all night, all the time, all the way home. The perfect puppy stared at us as if to say, so what’s the deal? Where ya going? Who are you? Oh, did you see that cat, train, cloud, car, sign, sun, balloon, and everything else in the world? The dog never looked down. She saw it all. She never slept. I mean she never slept. The little one finally tired of wailing and slept. The “smart one”, she never slept.

Having two puppies brings you joy and challenge. It finds your patience in places you didn’t know you stored anything but anger. It brings you to your knees in laughter and to the edge of nerves. But those pups cared for the aging Keefer past deaf and blind. They took her in and took her out and slept with heads on her plump little belly. They were family until Keefer knew they were big enough to go it without her. Then she just went to sleep.

Then there came “Rocket”. Ok, she needs a home and hasn’t been treated quite right and will be gone to a good home before we knew. We would find her a good place. We did. Ours! She came, she never left. She just bucked like a bronco with constant joy. She knew she was saved.

So, there was Schatzie with sticky up ears and springs for legs, and there was Hilde with intelligence and curiosity to walk in water every chance she had, and there was Roxy, whose name came with her and was most inappropriate, in my opinion. She flew into our lives and landed in our laps like a rocket. Her paper name was Hard Rock Tough Enough. And she proved to be tough enough for anything, anyone, any dog, and any disease.

Schatzie was sweet and affectionate. She loved to be held and kissed and wanted to please. We loved those funny ears. She dove into the spa, she squealed when she walked. She was first to go. She was happy and bouncy and then in two days she was gone. She seemed to say, it’s ok. She wanted to please. Then it was Rocky. Hard Rock Tough Enough fought hard. Just like her to do that. She was strong and she did her bucking bronco when we came in the door…until the last week. Then tough enough ran out of steam and we let her go.

Today, Hilde finally slept. She was smart enough to know it was time. It was the first day in 14 ½ years she didn’t get up at 4:30 wanting to have her breakfast. She knew if she got next to an ear and shook her tags hard enough you couldn’t sleep at all. You may as well get up and feed her then. She was smart and she never slept, until today.

The three little sisters are off on a new journey, and if there is a doggie heaven they are having the time of their new lives. God bless.

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