Sometimes she just comes into my mind randomly. Usually its in the am as I leave for work or like right now in the evening when I’m sitting around in the living room.
In the morning she always would look up from her bed as I left out the door. A brief acknowledgment “oh, its not daddy, then I’m OK.” And in the evening she would lay in her bed and watch Peter and me. If one of us got up to go to the kitchen in her younger days she would get up and follow. Her paws clicking on the floor. As she got older she would lift her head and await the return. Her tail would wag and hit the wall if it was food, “oh, for me? Really, you didn’t have to bring food to me. But now that you have I’ll drool right over here until you give me some.”
Sometimes I forget what a huge part of our lives she was. We couldn’t make plans without considering Cookie first. Same with William but we can bring him everywhere with us, its a little different with a doggie. Because of this, though I want another dog I’m a little reluctant. There’ll never be another Cookie and the freedom of being dog free (and dog hair free) is kind of nice. Though I’d go back in a heartbeat to having the Cookie dog back — even with all the fur and slobber.
I get sad just writing this. Its hard to express what we felt for Cookie. People that haven’t been this close to a dog would never understand. She wasn’t just a pet, she was an integral part of our family. She was part of what held our family together. Now that she’s gone a lot of times I feel that little part missing.
I think she left at a good time as we transitioned to William. Had she left earlier it would have been much harder. Had she left a little later we would have felt the loss that William was just getting to make a friend.
I have to believe that things happen for a reason, and Cookie came into our lives for many. To teach us pure joy, love and loyalty. To just love being, and that sometimes happiness can be found in the simplest of things — like a tennis ball or rub behind the ear.
We’ll see you at the Rainbow Bridge old gal.
