Up With The Big Dogs

Last night my beloved (cough, cough) dog Smokey went to the big kennel in the sky. That damn dog was a big pain in my ass. And that's exactly how he stole my heart. He was just like me.

You see, I've pretty much been a pain in the ass to people my whole life. My mother used to tell me that if I was her first child, I would have been her only child.

Teachers in school used to tell me if they didn't know my parents, they would wonder where I came from.

When we were cleaning out my parents house last week, I found about a dozen notes from my mother. They all said something on the order of "Dear Eileen, I went down Grams. You are grounded. When you get home from school STAY HOME." It seems I was always grounded for one reason or another.

So you get the point here.

Smokey was always in the dog house. He tried to be good. Really, he did. He would look at me. Then look at the cat he wanted to chase down the street. Look back at me. You could see the look on his face. Sort of like "Oh, please let me chase that cat. Please. Oh, I really, really need to chase that cat. Awww hell, I'm just going to chase the cat." And off he'd go. Chasing the damn cat.

Then there's the whole fixation he had with beds. He ate giant holes in every bed in the house. But that was just a phase. He got over that. He had to, there were no more beds in the house to chew.

He sat and watched my house get robbed. But then he bit my brother when he walked in my house. He also bit a neighbor and a jogger running down the street. Hey, they might of wanted to attack me or something. Ya know, a dog just never knows. Then he would look at me like he did a good thing. Like "hey ma, did I do good, did I? Did I?

Every morning when I would roll over to wake up. There he was. Staring into my face. Like he was saying "Mornin' Ma, what are we doing today, huh. huh? Lets go, up and atom!"

And just like me, he loved to dance. He did. He could stroll across a room on two feet. It was amazing. My son used to say if he didn't see it for himself, he would have never believed it.

He also stood on two feet er paws and unlocked doors. I swear. That little trick landed him in hot water quite a few times.

Smokey and I were like two old dogs that found each other.

Our very favorite place in the whole wide world is St. Mary's Cemetery in Lawrenceville. The first time I took him there and let him run loose, he thought he died and went to heaven. He would run in circles, run back to me and look at me as if to say "this is so much damn fun" and then run and return to me. He was a riot. We went there all the time to just walk around and visit old friends. Now I will add him to my list.

The last few weeks Smokey The Guard Dog (as he preferred to be called) just wasn't his usual self. He just didn't feel like dancing. If you know what I mean. So we went to vet last night and by the time I got him there, he could hardly breath. And, well you know the rest.......

When he was in trouble (which was often)I used to tell him he was going back to the big house. He just looked up at me with those sorry eyes. He knew I didn't mean it.

Bye Bye Smokers, you were a good dog and don't let anyone tell you any different!!!!!

The story of how Smokey and I got together.

Another Smokey story.

And one more.

*Weird thing, these two pictures were taken last night before we left. I was grabbing my purse to go and the camera just happened to be sitting there so I took a few pictures.