It has been a wild 17.5 years of loving you and there are so so many stories of your shenanigans. Iâll share a few of them to hopefully make some people smile in your memory. Feel free to share any stories you have of Moose. May his memory be a blessing đđŒđ I was 18 years old when I went to the pet store to âlook at puppiesâ. You were the cutest puppy I have ever seen. It was a Monday and I immediately put you on hold. I visited you everyday, for 5 days. Aunt Allison Antonison came with me once but I missed the parking lot. I pulled into the next parking lot and some how thought it was a good idea to drive over the grass divider between parking lots. I got my VW stuck on the divider. I couldnât go forward. I couldnât go backward. John Sommer had to come to our rescue. The best part is that the store was closed and we just wanted to wave to you. By Friday, I gathered enough money to bring you home. Helene Saphire thought I secretly had a baby when I came to the house with you hidddn in a pea pod dog bed, cradling you like a baby, and told her I had a surprise. She wasnât wrong because you became her little baby. She wasnât happy with me. After Kyle, the dog who welcomed me home from the hospital, died my parents didnât want another dog. We finally got Bogey but he bit my dad and we gave him to a nice lady. For years after Bogey, grandma said she didnât want another dog but I was 18 now and despite still living under her roof, I thought I could make my own decisions. She told you âyou donât live here, youâre just visitingâ for weeks. My punishment was I couldnât leave you home for her to watch. I had to bring you everywhere. I happily did. You came with me to frat parties in New Brunswick & on so many adventures. It was not a bad punishment and clearly wasnât effective because I brought Kayla home the following year. Everyone met you and everyone loved you. My favorite memory of you and grandma was walking in on you two eating chips. I didnât want you to have table food. Grandma didnât know I was spying. She ate a chip and said, âchip for grandmaâ and gave you a chip, âchip for Mooseyâ. You were her first grandchild and she spoiled you. She fed you breakfast, lunch, and dinner and made you doggy omelettes until we moved out in Aug 2008. You were here favorite and she was yours. You cried a whole different type of cry when she left the house than when I would leave. I brought Kayla home in June 2008 and you were the best big brother to her. You didnât attack her when she attacked you. You were a wonderful dog. Smart, patient, and loving. You occasionally bit men but that wasnât your fault. An ex boyfriend abused you and you bit him, rightfully so. When Gary Saphire found out you bit the ex bf, he said âwhat a p****. The dogs teeth donât even align, it canât be a bad bite.â It wasnât, you didnât even break the skin. You knew that ex was not for me before I did. You were smart and you never forgot that some men are not good people. Pat Barton startled you once in the middle of the night and you accidentally bit him. You broke the skin this time and Patrick needed antibiotics. You definitely loved Patrick so we forgive you. You once ate 1/4 ounce of that asshole ex bfâs weed and I gave you hydrogen peroxide to induce vomiting. You were soooo stoned. A few years later, you ate a homemade pot cookie and spent the night at the emergency vet. Iâm sure you enjoyed the peanut butter cookie but you definitely did not enjoy the high. I decided you should spend the night at the vet so you could be monitored and I could study for my nursing exam that was early the next morning. They gave you IV fluids and eye drops. When I asked why they gave you eye drops, the vet explained you were awake all night, sitting up staring out of the cage, not blinking. Thank you Grandpa Gary for paying for that and for a few other vet visits. I probably shouldnât have given you a middle name of Ganja, it seems like I gave you a goal and you certainly met it. Im still not sure how you got that cookie off the counterâŠ. In 2018, I brought home a baby parrot. Soca was a strange new creature & you were curious & yet again, immediately accepted another member of the pack. You were never jealous like Kayla is. In 2019, I met Patrick & later that year you met his boy Butters. A 70 lb pitbull mastiff goofball. He became another member of the pack and you just wagged your tail and welcomed him into the Saphire-Barton Zoo. In 2023, one of my dreams came true. Not only did I become a mother, you were still here to meet my baby. Without fail, you were there to happily accepted another member of the pack. You didnât mind him pulling your fur or smacking your face, as babies tend to do. You were a great first dog for a baby to have to learn how to properly treat an animal. You are Benjiâs first loss and I choke on the words to explain where youâve gone when he looks for you. You were not the healthiest dog. You had 3 episodes of ataxia where your head was stuck sideways and youâd fall over. The first time I thought you had a stroke and rushed you to the vet. A few medications later and you recovered. The second time we rushed you to the vet and you were diagnosed with the same thing. We took you on family vacation during this episode and the Bartonâs helped take care of you. Grandma Flore even gave you the nickname Lopsided and didnât get mad when you peed in the rental house. It was a wonderful vacation and you got better, again. Earlier this year, it happened for the third time. I thought you were having a seizure. You were doing alligator rolls and didnât know which way was up. Aunt A rushed to my side to help say goodbye to you. I was sure it was the end. Another emergency vet bill later, you were diagnosed with the same, non specific âataxia and vertigoâ. The vet agreed with me that âyou looked patheticâ and Aunt A fiercely defended you. She loved you so much. We never did figure out why that happened to you. We said goodbye to you for the third time in January of this year when you were falling over from a leg injury and sleeping all day. Aunt Susan Koolik Pilcer & Uncle Edward Pilcer watched Benji so daddy & I could say goodbye to you. The vet said itâs not wrong to put you down but itâs also not wrong to try antibiotics and pain killers. We decided to try the medicine and you recovered, again. You were my resilient little pain in the ass. Youâve been on the anti inflammatory since. It helped for a while and you seemed to be doing good. As good as a 17 year old dog can do. I was so annoyed with you, having me crying while I said goodbye to you for the third time. I had Benji, Soca, butters and Kayla say goodbye to you too. Even aunt a made her way over again, just to say goodbye to the OG puppy. In a strange way, those 3 times I took you to put you down prepared me for today. My heart is broken but I know that this is what is best for you. You lost almost all your teeth. What was left was not in good condition. Your strong 17 lb body went down to 13 lbs after muscle wasting took effect. You didnât play with your toys. You didnât stay outside very long before you asked to come back in. Even your bark was different. You yelped when I picked you up to snuggle you. You winced when I tried to pet you. You screamed when I tried to cut your hair or bathe you. Butters fiercely protected you when you were panicking and barked at me until I put you down. You pee anywhere you feel like it. Iâm not sure if itâs spite for when you donât get some of our dinner or if youâre senile, or both. You ruined our kitchen floor in a few spots but thatâs okay, we can replace it one day. You wagged your tail when I changed your diaper. If I didnât change your diaper quickly enough, mold grew on your elderly body. I bathed you while you screamed to wash away the mold. I didnât know mold could grow on a dog. Iâm so sorry that happened. I took you for your last haircut to help avoid more mold from growing on your fur and thankfully, that worked. Part of me knew it was your time to go but I was holding on to the idea that youâre still here and not ready. It was me. I was not ready. You donât âdogâ anymore, as the vet puts it. It was your time to cross the rainbow bridge into doggy heaven and I am so happy I could let you leave this world peacefully and painlessly. You got to go on our terms, not during an emergency visit when youâre feeling sick. Aunt A came over again last night to say goodbye. You licked your peanut butter while the doctor gave you your shot. You kept licking until you fell asleep sleep. I held you and kissed you. It was so hard to watch you go. I love you so much, my very first baby. I hope you play with all the toys, run zoomies in a field, and lick all the peanut butter up there in heaven. Say hello to Kyle and all of Grandma Grace Marie & grandpa Garyâs rescues for me. Watch over our pack, Moosey beans.
Category: Memorials
