Tag: Ralphie

Transition

Happy New Year, friends. I hope that you had a lovely holiday season. Ours was beautiful, poignant, painful, joyful and full of change and expansion. It is clearly apparent now that our family is growing up and growing out, in all different interesting and fun directions, but our years and years of “same old/same old” when it comes to our holiday traditions have definitely come to pass. Our children all have wonderful long term significant others (our two eldest sons are engaged to be married) and so my husband and I have had to learn to share and to embrace change. We have had to learn to create new traditions, and to feel our way to these new traditions. We have also lost loved ones along the way, and this Christmas was no exception. Sadly, we found out that our Ralphie, our beautiful Labrador retriever, our last true “family dog” (our eldest two sons were still in college when we brought Ralphie home), had incurable and painful lymphoma and so we made the choice to have Ralphie euthanized at home with Lap of Love (this service came highly recommended to us by our friends. If you ever come to having to make this unfortunate choice, they were wonderful.) I suppose the only upside of this situation happening at Christmastime is that we all were with him, to say our goodbyes.

I know what I truly love when I do a search on my blog. I searched up “Ralphie” before I wrote this post and there were eight pages of blog posts to look through. Some of those excerpts are seen below. When I kissed Ralphie good-bye, I had this vision of him starting to cross the Rainbow Bridge, but then turning and jumping off of it, into beautiful crystal clear water and swimming to his beautiful, big heart’s content. Thank you for everything, my big, beautiful, lovable fur friend. Until we see you again . . . .

“Two years ago, when our elderly rescue spaniel/corgi mix passed, we decided we wanted a new puppy. We had moved to Florida and the kids really wanted a dog who would love the water. So, in researching, we decided we would get a Labrador Retriever, a big family dog which is known to be a water lover. My daughter and I picked out Ralphie, a Dudley yellow lab puppy and he truly is the most loving, funny, zany, adventurous, loyal dog that we have ever had the pleasure to live with. I now understand why they are such a popular breed. They are big dogs, so people are wary of them, yet they are the sweetest dogs alive. Ralphie hardly ever barks. Labrador Retrievers love everybody and all other dogs. They are curious, obedient, eager to please, and super smart. Ralphie turns our Roomba, the X-box and some light switches, on and off, and these are the tricks that he taught himself to do. Ralphie hates when anyone in the family is upset and he will do anything that he can to make you feel better. And water loving – oh my goodness, Ralphie is part dog/part fish. He swims in our pool more than any of us. He treads water, he puts his whole head in, and he leaps in the pool for his toys, endlessly. His joy for life is absolutely contagious! He brings a smile to my heart just thinking about him.”

“Ralphie is over-the-top, in your face exuberance and intensity. He is smart as a whip, lead hopelessly by his bear-sized nose, and constantly on the move, unless he is entirely passed out. Still he keeps his fervor going by swimming in his sleep. When he gives kisses, they are full, wet and all encompassing. His huge tongue is like a washcloth you would use to wash your car, and with a few passionate licks, he has managed to cover your whole face, your ears and your neck. He is not at all protective, he would definitely have the “flight” tendency in a “fight or flight” scenario. He is so absolutely and completely in-tuned to us, his family and to himself. Every night, he comes to the couch, where my husband and I are sitting, to remind us that it is his bedtime by lying his head on one of our knees.”

“Our Labrador retriever, Ralphie, spent a lot of time with us in the pool this weekend. He’s now an interesting shade of yellow-green. Ralphie is definitely “that blonde kid on the swim team.” You can’t miss the fact that he loves to swim.”

“Limp Tail Syndrome

They say it comes from swimming too much,

It came from doing your greatest love.

It stole your wag. It stole your grin.

Your body can’t smile in your wiggly way

with the big wet soppy toy in your mouth.

It will pass. All things do. But now

Your body just grimaces and growls,

And your tail hangs limp.

You wear your emotions on your whole body,

Not just a sleeve. You don’t hide anything.

You are the embodiment of life, breath and love,

And joy and pain and listless agitation.

You are so fully you, always and ever.

Soon your sprightly tail will wag again.

Easy, light, high and fast and free and happy.

Your tail never hangs limp for long.

It’s not in your nature to be kept down.”

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Fur Babies

I have two dogs. They were born on the exact same day in May, exactly one year apart. Ralphie, our Dudley yellow Labrador is a little over two and Josie, our tri-color Collie is a little over one. They are both wonderful creatures.

Ralphie is over-the-top, in your face exuberance and intensity. He is smart as a whip, lead hopelessly by his bear-sized nose, and constantly on the move, unless he is entirely passed out. Still he keeps his fervor going by swimming in his sleep. When he gives kisses, they are full, wet and all encompassing. His huge tongue is like a wash cloth you would use to wash your car, and with a few passionate licks, he has managed to cover your whole face, your ears and your neck. He is not at all protective, he would definitely have the “flight” tendency in a “fight or flight” scenario. He is so absolutely and completely in-tuned to us, his family and to himself. Every night, he comes to the couch, where my husband and I are sitting, to remind us that it is his bedtime by lying his head on one of our knees.

Josie is elegance, sweetness and perkiness all wrapped up in the package of a beautiful, warm, fluffy dog. My daughter calls her the teddy bear. I liken her to a giant Pomeranian. She is a cuddle-bug, with a capital C. Her licks are dainty, with her small gentle tongue barely darting out of her mouth as she “cleans” your hands, much like a cat. She lays with her front legs crossed, very lady-like, even when she is deep in sleep. She is always alert to dangers, warning us, dependably, of the impending doom of the Amazon delivery person or the pack of squirrels living in our trees.

Walking the dogs every night is interesting. Ralphie always has his nose to the ground. He is on a mission and seemingly unaware of anything other than what he is tracking with his stoutly snuffer. Josie, being a herding dog, has her head on a swivel, only occasionally indulging in the scents on the ground which Ralphie is likely to roll around in, if he feels any slack in the leash. Josie always greets the other dogs, ducks, and deer that we see regularly, pertly, prettily, excitedly, with her beautiful, fluffy tail swishing elegantly as she gives each and every creature we meet, a delighted, buzzing look as if to say, “Isn’t life just grand?!?”

The dogs are a perfect yin yang to each other. Josie loves playing life guard to Ralphie, as he does his Navy seal routine, treading water and swimming in our pool tirelessly. She runs around the pool, watching him, barking warnings when she thinks that he is too tired and should get out of the pool. Josie is the first to bark warnings of impending visitors to our home. Ralphie loyally follows behind her, looking confused and bewildered, hackles up, sounding out the occasional deep “Woof!” to back her up (to which fight he is not at all sure), his formidable size and intense stare, enough to sometimes get people to forget, that he is just a big, goofy Lab, easily won over to anyone who offers a pat or a treat.

We adore our dogs. Our sons are all coming home this weekend, all with the same sentiment, “We miss the dogs.” Our dogs are so uniquely themselves. They don’t try to change or to be something different than who they inherently are to the core. They don’t try to be like each other. They adore our family, each other and life, sharing toys and playful romps with exuberance and yet restraint. Animals have so much to teach of us about living life. Ralphie and Josie, are my friends, companions, inspiration, comforters, protectors and mentors, and not necessarily in that order.