Mandy
1985 - 2000

My sweet little dog, I remember how tiny you were, how helpless you seemed. A white puff of fur with soft-spoken brown eyes and kissable pink nose. Never too tired to chase your Mom and Dad along the beach or to jump on old Hobie.

Deaf you became, and sick, yet you still loved us and made us laugh. Years of wonderful memories, loyalty & laughter, all contained in my "good dog."

Mandy is my yellow lab/german shepard mix...I say is because she is still so very much alive in my heart. Nothing will ever be the same now that she is gone. She came to us through my brother, also deceased, who found her on the entrance ramp of an interstate and brought her to me. We already had our Hobie-Dog, a black lab who was a little over a year old and a handful...Yet I fell in love instantly with Mandy, who named herself (I swear I heard her whisper her name in my ear during that first meeting...)Mandy loved to run, chase sticks and balls into the ocean, she loved to wrestle with her "sister" Hobie, and to play with her human "sisters" Alyssa and Alanna (our daughters)...she played the lion in their almost daily circus shows in the backyard, and went hiking with us, running ahead to check out the terrain for suspicious smelling varmints! As she aged, her favorite pastimes included sitting with me on the deck, drinking cafe con leche (I always shared my coffee with her!), watching the birds, and keeping an eye out for the neighborhood cats...

In, April, of 1999, her back legs began to fail, she contracted cancer, and developed a gaping bed sore on one side (her favored side for lying on the deck)...I carried her from place to place, fed Mandy her favorite foods, treated her sore (as if it would get better) and we loved her as much as we possibly could, until her kidneys started to fail...Then we knew, after such a long, brave fight, that it was time to say goodbye...I know she is still with me, but I do so miss her presence, her sweet licks on my cheek...