Memorial to our Family Friend
2002-11-13 - 10:29 a.m.

For Katie's first birthday we bought her a dog. We were proper Yuppie parents and researched what breeds were good with children along with what size animal would be best for our home and yard. We chose a Sheltie. We took a lot of ribbing through the years about a Shelton Sheltie but we knew he was the one. See, he chose Katie.

We took her to a kennel in the upstate and there was another family there too. The puppies all ran to the back of the pen when Katie approached the kennel fence, but not Chad. He stood up with his front paws on the links and licked her nose. She giggled and smiled and we were charmed. All the way home we thought of names. Pinehills kennel and we wanted an English sounding name. As we approached our house we crossed Chadford Rd and he quickly became Pinehill's Chadford Squire. Very quickly shortened to Chad.

The breeder said he was not show quality because of his shoulder/rump height ratios....whatever! He loved our daughter from the start and that was enough for us! They are bred to herd and will nip at heels but not bite. I know this to be valid as he was just a puppy and Kate a toddler when she bit HIM on the snout. He just yelped and turned his head to the side as if to say, "Why would you do that?" From across the room I relaxed from that instant terror of knowing she was going to be bitten.

As Kate and Christie grew, Chad watched over them in the back yard. Barking vigorously whenever anyone approached the fence and "herding" circles around anyone who came to visit. Never hurt them,not once.

He learned to tolerate the stray black cat my sister enticed us to keep. Bagheera was not about to take second place to a Sheltie and would lay on the coffee table and swat Chad's head when he came in from outside as a passive aggressive statement on having to be an inside cat. Chad just learned to take a different route across the den.

He ran away once for all day and we were so sad, but then he came home all "peppy" and "spunky" and we know there are some little half Chad's somewhere in the neighborhood.

He aged over the years like Les and I, graying like me and developing bald spots like Les. But he was family and we took in stride the changes. First he inherited the big Disney dalmation toy to sleep on then we bought a huge flat soft bed so he could rest better when he got arthritis.

He developed cataracts and steadily lost vision until he became blind a few months ago. Les would patiently take him down the steps and watch over him particularly on rainy days when he could not track back to the house by scent. The girls would come right home and take him out so that he would not get lost and wet in the house. He slept most of the day so going outside and getting his reward pet was his big activity a few times a day.

This weekend while Les was cooking at an event, Katie gave Chad his weekly bath. After he started his traditional run and shake around the house but collapsed in her room. I held him and wondered if he had had some kind of seizure but shortly after he picked his head up off my arm and he was okay. Katie sat and gently combed him out for a long time.

Monday he had a transient gait abnormality and I wondered if he was having some kind of neuro event. But it passed so quickly.

Les bathed him again last night because he was unusually soiled. He just tolerated it and did not even shake off. Les set him down and he ambled into the den where I was talking to Wendy/Theo on her new cell. He didn't look right and then wet himself and collapsed. Les picked him up and told me he was alright. He took him to his bed and patted his back til he fell asleep like we always did for the girls when they didn't feel well.

He checked on him when he went to bed and he was okay. When I followed 15 minutes later, he was gone.

So today we had to tell our girls that the dog they have always known has died. It is hard for them, especially three months after their Grandmom. Les stayed home to prepare his grave.

Tonight we plan to have a memorial service. Christie will sing and Kate and I will prepare his memorial and flowers.

We are so terribly sad.

We still love you Chad.

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