Our Rosita

In a little while, the vet is coming to put down our Rosie dog, who is almost 15 and has been a wonderful dog - not a particularly good dog, mind you, but a wonderful dog all the same.  She provided us lots of laughs with her bounding enthusiasm for life and her flat out refusal to fetch anything.  She's been an escape artist since we got her as a puppy from the pound.  Even at a few weeks old, she could climb paw over paw and escape from her cage.  She'd get to the top and just throw herself over - anything to get out!  When we tried to block her from the Christmas tree by putting a love seat across the door, she leapt it in a single bound.  She had odd little fears - balloons and plastic bags were near the top of the list - we said that she was part Chow, part Shepherd, and part chicken.  She didn't love other dogs-she tolerated small dogs but hated large dogs.  When she was happy, her tail would go up into a cute little curl and she always looked like she was smiling - and like she had just put on mascara.  She loved eggs - even into old age, an egg would make her jump around like a puppy.  Now she's arthritic and the medicine isn't really helping anymore.  She has diabetes insipidus and the medicine for that isn't doing much, either.  She's completely deaf (although she pretended to be most of her life...)' her eyesight is going, and she's begun to pace frantically around the house.  She gets lost in corners.  It's time...  Goodbye, dear Rosie - we'll miss you lots.