Shout Out to the Fur Babies

I want to take time this week to pay tribute to all the fur babies in my life. I\’ve written a whole blog post about my Zeus before, but we can never have too many puppy pictures floating around the internet!! I also want to include Nate\’s parents\’ dogs too, because in the five years that I have been with Nate, I\’ve come to see them as my little fur babies too. 

Our pets become members of our families, and it is often hard to imagine our lives without them in it. And while we do get several good years with them, it never feels like enough. 

On Thursday, Nathan\’s parents lost their dog, Lucy. She was a 12 year old Jack Russell Terrier, and one of the sweetest and smartest little dogs I\’ve ever seen. She was super adventurous, always running all over their farm hunting squirrels, rats, opposums, and really anything that moved. She even tried to hunt their chickens! She was also a good little companion, riding on the gator with you, lounging in the sun when we were working in the field, and snuggling with you on the couch while we were watching movies. She was just overall a very good dog, and she is going to be missed greatly. 

A memory that stands out with me about Lucy, was one time when Nate and I had driven down to visit his parents for the weekend, we got in pretty late and it was thunder storming outside. Lucy HATES storms. We went right to bed and Lucy stayed by our side the entire time, trembling so hard I thought she was going to break. She cuddled up right by my shoulder and snuggled into my neck the entire night while we protected her from the storm. It\’s kind of funny to think about how fearless Lucy was with everything else she did, but when it came to thunderstorms, she became a nervous wreck.

Their second oldest dog, is Scout, who is Lucy\’s younger sister. They came from the same mom, but born in different litters. Scout is 11, and I\’m not sure what she is going to do without Lucy. They were double trouble. Wherever one went, the other would go too. Scout is notorious for running off into the woods and coming back black with mud from head to toe. I remember one time, Nate and I were out exploring in the woods with the dogs, and Nate and I were standing about halfway down a steep hill with the dogs running around at the bottom. I saw Scout walk up to a giant muddle puddle and start walking around in it, so I go: \”Scout! No! Come here!\” She looked up at me, and basically stuck her middle finger up at me and flopped down into the mud and started rolling all around. Needless to say, she got more than one bath that day.

Roo is their third dog, and I\’m not actually sure what kind of dog he is or exactly how old he is… Nate\’s parents got him from the pound about 2 years ago. I think he is 5 or 6, and we have had several debates about what kind of dog we think he is. We\’ve settled on part Jack Russel, part corgi 🙂 This little goober is all kinds of special. At first, he didn\’t like Nate and I at all. He would go ballistic every time we tried to get close to him, and for a while, I called him devil dog because he was so mean. There was one time where I was walking down the stairs and he comes running in between my legs and I ended up falling down the staircase — that\’s when he officially earned his nickname!

He has redeemed himself since then, and now he is very sweet to all of us. It just took him a while to open up! He gets so excited to see us when we come visit, and he\’ll come up and snuggle under the covers with us. He LOOOVES Nathan. He\’ll cuddle right into him and give him the googly eyes. Polly always says it\’s because Nate is like a peanut butter cup: the perfect mixture between Roo\’s mommy and daddy, and he just can\’t get enough of him!

And of course, I couldn\’t write a puppy post without including Zeusy! I got to see him a few weeks ago when I went home, even though I was only in Watertown for less than 24 hours, it was better than not getting to see him at all! I\’m looking forward to going back in August to catch up on our snuggles 🙂

Losing Lucy this week has made me realize how special these guys are to me. I want to scoop Scout, Roo, and Zeus all up into a great big hug and give them all the treats and tell them how special they are. It is always hard losing a furry friend, but at least we have the memories!

Until next time!

Megan Reiffenberger