Sandy Sue

I slept last night without a sound familiar over the last four years. Our dog Sandy was hit sometime early yesterday morning and died. No note on the door. They didn't move her out of the road.We got her in January 2007 when she was about 5 months old. I'm not sure there has been a night since then when she did not bark loudly at some point. Sometimes it was a nuisance, sometimes outright annoying. And last night it was missing.

Funny how little things like that stick out in my mind.

An emergency vehicle went be the house a little while ago. Sandy always alerted us about 30 seconds before we heard the siren. She would howl as if in pain when she picked up the faint sound. When I heard the siren today I thought of her.

My office door is about a 60-second walk from the front door of the house. Sandy usually made that trek (both ways) with me several times a day. She would lay in a shady spot in the summer or a sunny spot in the winter waiting for me to come out and walk to the other spot. Most of the time she walked just in front of me but close enough to make me alter my pace. Sometimes she would even be laying on the top step outside the office door - that almost always startled me.

So I'll walk over to the church later this afternoon by myself. I'll sleep tonight without waking up to her barking at something. I'll sit on the deck Monday without her head in my lap.

I'll forget and wonder why she's not howling when the sirens sound. I'll forget and ask Riley if he fed her some morning. I'll forget and start singing one of my little songs about her.

Her lore will likely expand - just like that of John John (the kitty cat). We enjoy having pets, we just don't have them very long.