We interrupt mom’s exciting (not) bird stories to show you a picture she just found on her laptop of my sister Bonnie. Bonnie was mom and dad’s sheltie before Katie. Obviously I never got to meet her, but I hear she was a very good girl.
Looks like mom was into yellow flowers decades ago!
Here’s Bonnie.
And here’s Katie.
And here’s me!
The yellow flower sisters!
PS: I hear today is International Sheltie Day, and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate it than posting about my sisters!
The last couple days I’ve been thinking about Bonnie, our sheltie-girl who lived with us before Katie. She had an entirely different life with us than Katie has. Not bad different, just different.
Going for a walk.
The only school she went to was puppy school, where she was mostly shy, but very smart. She threw up on the ride over to school most weeks. I’d arrive with a damp, smelly puppy and jeans soaked in puppy vomit. Regularly. When we got to the distance sit/stays she was so scared she slowly turned around until her back was to me as I stood on the other side of the school gym. The instructor said to me, “Well, she certainly hasn’t bonded with you!” Yet, at the end of the class she won 1st place in our mock obedience trial. Because she was a very good girl and had, in fact, bonded with me just fine.
She had lots of health problems. Born with a heart murmur, she had occasional seizures and was on meds for that her entire life. She had a toe amputated, and her tail, too, after it was injured durng a stay at a kennel. Through it all she soldiered on.
Near the end of her life, hanging out on the front porch.
She was lost for four days once, when she was staying with her favorite Grandpa Jack and got out of the house when no one was paying attention. Bruce and I were out of town and Grandpa Jack didn’t tell us she’d run away until we got home. Devestated didn’t begin to describe us and him. Luckily we got her back after signs were put up in the neighborhood and a woman called to say Bonnie had been hanging around in a vacant lot several streets away from Grandpa’s house.
Hanging out in the office with her mom.
She got lost for a little while here at home, too, when she chased a cat into the woods behind our house and I couldn’t find her. Turns out we hadn’t realized she had become deaf, so she didn’t come when we called for her out there in the woods. My husband found her sitting in a clearing waiting for us to come get her.
I called her my sweetie-girl because she was. Except the three times she got skunked. She never needed to be on a leash, we let her out to do her business at night, and sometimes she got involved with the visiting black and white kitties. Oh the smell! I can tell you with certainty that tomato juice does not take away the smell of skunk. It does, however, give you a smelly, wet orange dog.
The driveway was a good spot to survey her kingdom too.
She was a special little girl who died three months shy of her 15th birthday, here at home exactly 15 years ago today. I wrote about her last afternoon with us way back when I began this blog. Today I went back to the blog to find out when she died, because she’s been on my mind.
Imagine my surprise to find today was the anniversary.
She never went camping, never explored a park, didn’t go traveling, never really liked being in a car. What she really liked was being home with her people. I guess she’s been hanging around my heart and my mind these past few days because she wants me to know she’s still here. Of course she is. She never ever wanted to be anywhere else.
Mama says she can’t go five days and five photos without including me! She says I get to tell the story this time too.
So here goes.
A long long time ago mama and dad had another sheltie-girl. Her name was Bonnie and she was a very good girl. She didn’t get to go to doggie school, and she didn’t compete in trials. She didn’t get to go to the park or for rides or to visit people. She pretty much stayed at home and loved my mama and dad.
For a lot of years she couldn’t hear at all, but she was so good at reading body language it took my folks a long time to figure it out. She didn’t bark at thunder or the UPS truck, and she didn’t chase cars. Hard to believe that she was even a sheltie!
Anyway, she lived a long time and went through a lot. She lost a toe and her tail and had arthritis pretty bad. She was on lots of meds, but she was a happy girl. One day she had a really big seizure and she died. Mama and dad were with her, so she didn’t have to go to the bridge alone.
Mama and dad were very very sad. But they didn’t know that I had already been born and was waiting impatiently for them! You know the rest of the story, right? I came along and cheered them up. I did silly bonehead puppy stuff and barked at everything including thunder and the UPS truck. In fact I still do. Cause they wouldn’t know enough to take care of stuff like that without me.
I know that someday I will break their hearts and go find my sister at the Rainbow Bridge. But until then I’ll pose for mom and her silly camera. I’ll sit right here between the breaking hearts and the forget-me-not flowers.
Cause I know for sure they’re never going to forget me. Just like they haven’t ever forgotten my sister Bonnie.
This is the last installment of Carol’s challenge Five photos, five days. The rules were to post a photo and a story, fiction or non, or even poetry. And then we were to nominate someone each day to play along. Well, we like what Carol did for her photo #5, anyone out there that I’ve missed that wants to show us 5 photos is welcome to join in! Show us what you’ve got!
I’ll turn the blog back over to my mama now. She got a little teary when she got thinking about her Bon-Bon. But I think she’s going to be OK cause I kissed her a bunch when she got home tonight.
Change Is Hard 