Pets are very special people. They give love, they make you know that you are needed, they make you laugh. They become part of your life, and it hurts when they leave you - but the joy that they bring overpowers the hurt of their loss.
I remember some funny things about Caesar... he was truly a food hound, which makes it particularly sad that his last days were plagued by problems keeping food down. He just loved to eat. It started with twirling for his food. And no, it wasn't a game or a trick that someone taught him. He twirled from when he was just a puppy. Prepare his food, and as the dish is picked up and is headed for his spot on the floor, he just started twirling. Can I describe it? Well, he wasn't chasing his tail - he was dancing, almost as if he were mounted on a merry-go-round pole, spinning around that pole, and twirling with joy. Funny. He always made me laugh! That was breakfast. Then he liked to share our dad's morning banana. Sliced banana, hand fed to him... yum. Then there were the evening snacks. It was almost as if he had an internal clock - at the same time every evening, he told his people very clearly that he wanted a biscuit. It was very funny to watch him actually lead someone into the kitchen, and to the area of the kitchen where he knew his biscuits were kept. Like I said, a true food hound!
He learned from Coco Loco - Suze's cat - that he could walk on the back of a sofa. No Caesar, you're a dog, not a cat. The back of the sofa is really not a stable place to stand. Watch out - you're going to fall and hurt yourself! Oh, OK, you're safe now, back on the cushion....
Then there was the day he practically levitated onto my lap... at least it seemed that way. Remember - he was a miniature dachshund, not very tall at all - it's amazing how he could leap through the air with no apparent effort. I was sitting on the sofa in the living room with a cup of coffee in my hand, and the next thing I knew Caesar flew out of absolutely no where and landed on my lap with his nose in the coffee cup. He did like coffee, and herbal tea too. Brandy turns his nose up at these drinks, but Caesar thought they were great. And every year at Thanksgiving, he somehow managed to leap from the floor over the dining room chair arm, and into someone's lap. After all, there were always good food smells at the table!
Oh, and there was the mad escape day. Caesar was out on the (enclosed) deck. He figured out how to open the latch to the gate, and he escaped! Brandy - the little tattletale - went to inform our mom that Caesar had escaped. She was beside herself, very worried, and she thought she lost him then. It was a long hunt, but she did find him, and he came home to spread his special form of joy for many more years.
He loved to have his chest rubbed, and he let you know about his desire by rolling on his back on the floor. Makes sense, right? But it really didn't, because Caesar would look around the room and pick one of the people lounging on the sofa. He would then start toward that person, stop just far enough away that he couldn't be reached without the person getting up from their comfortable seat, and then he'd roll on his back and look at that person - seeming to say "come on, be nice to me"! Come on Caesar, can't you come a little closer? Nope, I came partway, now you have to come to meet me. He would always bring a smile to my face when he did this. It's true - he knew how to make us laugh.
Caesar, it sounds like you're in a better place for you now. You've joined grandmother Bella, who died many many years ago on this date. She used to share fudgesicles with "old Caesar", one of your predecessors - in the days before we knew that chocolate was bad for dogs. Just think, you can eat anything you want now - no more special diet! And you've joined Etta too. You never met Bella, but you did meet Etta. She wasn't a dog person then, but she put up with you because you were her sister's baby. And I'd bet that she'll feed you treats too.
Caesar - thank you. Everyone misses you, we're sad, but we're glad we knew you. You brightened the lives of many people.
Memories of Brandy can be found in my February 4, 2005 It's time to say goodbye blog entry.
More pictures of Brandy & Caesar at my photo gallery titled The ‘guys’ - hey, are we really dogs? We think we're people...
