Today our sweet dog, Jade, will go to doggy heaven.  She has been such a good and faithful dog for our family.  So rather than thinking about her absence, this blog is to remember her doggy ways and the joy she brought into our family.  

 I remember the day we went to get her.  She was an 8 week old little puppy with jade green eyes, who liked to sleep on her back and looked like a headless dog when she did.  She was initially John's dog, but I think she claimed us all as her puppies.  

Poor Jade was a confused little dog who didn't know if she was a dog, a human, a deer or a cat.  She tried to use her paws like hands, jump through the fields like a deer and jump straight up on a porch post like a cat.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the months that she thought she was a fox and would play tag with the other foxes in the field.  Was there ever a more multifaceted dog?

Because John loved sports, Jade did too.  Even when John wanted Jade to be the sports buddy he had always wanted, Jade patiently endured his efforts to make her so.

Now let's remember "fetch."  Jade loved to fetch.  It didn't matter if it was golf balls, tennis balls, frisbees or dog toys.  She would fetch until she was so tired that she would drop. She was never happier than when we would play fetch with her.  Remember the big grin she always had on her face?

Of course there were the down times too, like when we banished her upstairs when people came over to visit so that she wouldn't jump on them.  She would look at us all forlornly through the banister.  Poor Jade!

All the grandkids loved Jade.  They wanted to pet her, ride her, be next to her, feed her.  (I'm pretty sure Jade liked the "feed her" part the best.)

There was hide and go seek with Sarah and John throughout the house.  (She always managed to find them.)  There was racing cars and trucks along the fenceline, with Jade always trying to beat them.  There were late night walks in the fields, confronting racoons and skunks on the porch, sneaking over to the neighbors' houses to eat their chicken and cat food, chewing her dog toys to bits with her "jaws of steel", playing with Tarzan and Bruno, and just hanging out with her family.

Good bye our dear and faithful friend, our little pupper schlupper.  We will miss you.