Do Overs

The first day that she arrived at our farm, I was skeptical, to say the least; she had been just a conversation with my wife and me. We had always been a one-dog family, and I didn’t really see the need for another, but Kathy had done her research and was excited about adding another. I went with it knowing the chaos it was going to bring. She arrived at 530, just as I was getting home from work; she immediately took one look at me and went under the deck and needed to be bribed to come out. Now our Golden retriever Libby was on the same page as me, and I could feel her disapproval of the new arrival and the look on her face saying, REALLY? Libby’s tact was to completely ignore her existence: amazing canine denial. The only interaction was a sneer and growl if the new member of our household got too close to her food or frisbee. The new arrival must have felt my apprehension as she hung tight to Kathy’s every move. She was awful cute, along with being so tiny. In a few days, Libby and I began our transformation and acceptance of the new member of our home. Her name came from one of Kathy’s 7th-grade science classes. She had given them the news of our new family member and asked them to help name her. Kathy tells the story that it was almost unanimous, and Roxie was now the name of our new Jack Russell Terrier. Every day when I would come home from work, she would be in front of the door, leaping 3 to 4 feet in the air as if she was on a pogo stick. It was truly an amazing thing to witness because the second she landed, she was back in the air, and not just for a few leaps but continued until I would put out my arms and catch her at the peak of her leap. This was my welcome home for many years, and needless to say, any remorse for the addition to our family was dismissed. She was a bit obsessive, to say the least, and I could share so many examples, but it’s a Jack Russell’s personality. It’s one of those characteristics that you love but can drive you completely nuts. One of the other characteristics of a Jack R is that they love to hunt and, most of all, rodents. She was almost a year old, and I had to say that I was a bit disappointed when a ground squirrel would run by her, and she made little to no effort to do what her genetics required and, up to this point, had shown no interest in hunting anything. Kathy was at a horse show, and I was having a lazy day on my deck, having a coffee and enjoying the return of the Sandhill Cranes. I heard some barking, and all of a sudden, Libby, the golden, was in front of me, and I could tell that she was trying to convey to me that there was trouble. I looked to the west behind my garage, and there was Roxie face to face with a woodchuck. I leaped up tried to call Roxie, and she was oblivious to my call; I went to grab my 22 riffles; as I turned, I saw the Wood Chuck scramble up a small birch tree hanging on about 4 feet up. Roxie leaped up, grabbed the Woodchuck, and with two shakes, relinquished its life. She then grabbed the Woodchuck again and brought it to me. I was stunned, Libby the golden was stunned, Roxie had found her genetic calling, and her daily job of keeping any rodent out of our compound had begun. I would let her out of the house in the morning, and she would make a dash to the birch tree to begin her daily hunt and to have a euphoric recall of her first, then around every building foundation, looking for any sign of rodents. Did I say she was obsessive? Occasionally, a ground squirrel \ chipmunk would try to find safety by running up the gutters around my house, which drove her nuts as she could hear them but could not get to them. The only option she had was to rip the gutter from the house. In her mind, every gutter had a hidden rodent and should be removed from the house. Our house became gutterless. My retriever Libby would let her snuggle with her during sleep time. Let her follow her around but have very little physical interaction. Libby was average at her retrieving, and when I would throw the frisbee for her, Roxie would make a mad dash for it. In the beginning, Libby would win the race, but as Roxie matured, she was the winner 100% of the time, and that was when we realized how competitive she was: along with when she would capture the frisbee, she would not give it up and would either run under the deck and stash it. We, at one time, had 5 frisbees under the deck; it got so bad that we couldn’t say the word frisbee because she would go into a complete excitement breakdown. We stopped buying them and stopped saying the word frisbee. Jacks are average swimmers, but that didn’t stop Roxie’s competitiveness. She had to be the first to the ball thrown from the boat. She only had issues when Libby would push her under. The problem was resolved with a sleek life jacket that made her float and swims more efficiently and guaranteed victory in all water retrieving. Roxie’s obsession with winning at retrieving let Libby off the hook, and Libby began just sitting next to me, enjoying watching Roxie have her moment. Libby and I would have to sneak away and have our time because the word share was not in Roxie’s capabilities. When we would have company, Roxie would always find a friendly lap to express her approval of their presence. She made an enormous amount friends and fans over the years with her jubilant greetings and lap snuggling. Roxie would become a submissive star-struck bowl of mush when a male dog was in her presence. It was such a change in her persona we would laugh and make fun of the departure of her dominance.So many memories and special moments in the last 16 years with Roxie. The last 3 years were a slow loss of many of the things that made her so special and a huge part of our family. She still enjoyed her daily walk with me even though they became shorter and shorter. Her hunting was replaced with what we called a walk-about and every day she would visit the same areas just in case she was needed to hunt or protect us. Kathy has had some health issues the last few years and no doubt that Roxie sensed this and gave Kathy an abundance amount attention and love. I have no doubt that she hung around long enough to make sure we were ok with it all. The hole she left was huge and saying goodbye was one of the most emotional we have ever experienced. She was our last dog and her absence will be felt every day until I draw my last breath.