Sweet Jackson

To know me is to know that I am an animal lover.  When I was little, I wanted to be a veterinarian just so that I could be around animals every day.  As I grew a little older, I decided that I wanted to become a dog breeder, until I realized that you can't cuddle with dogs smeared in each others' poop... there's just no getting around that with 20 dogs running around in a yard together.

In my middle-school years, I so badly wanted a guinea pig.  My mom always had an aversion to them since her biology days in college (don't ask) but knowing how much I wanted one, after making me read up on caring for rodents, my parents got me Jester.  He just loved eating apple peels, munching on grass, and hiding in the prickly bushes in our yard (not the smartest creature out there).  I wouldn't ever get one again, but at the time I sure loved that little stinker!

Seriously, how cute??

But more than anything, dogs have always been my favorite.  My family always had one while I was growing up.  When I was born we had Duffy, my parents' first dog as a couple.  In 1990 when my dad left the Navy and we moved to New York, we got Admiral.  And then the summer before I left for college in 2002 we got Jackson.  Our dogs have always been shelties - very mild mannered, friendly and sweet.  Ever so patient with us kids, they put up with being dressed up (need a bandana for every season!), brushed (teeth and hair), and snuggled.

Maybe it's because I was younger or maybe because, like a typical teenager, I was caught up in my own little world, (or who knows, maybe my memory is already starting to go??), I have fainter memories of Admiral, and certainly Duffy.  But despite being in college and/or living on my own for a majority of the time we had Jackson, I seem to remember him the best.  We all went to see his litter when they were born and again each week afterwards in order to pick the right puppy for us.  I worked at a butcher/deli at the time and would go over straight from work.  The meat stuck in my sneakers made each and every one of them want to come home with me.

This is really them!

Every time I came home from college or wherever I was living at the time, Jack would timidly step out onto the driveway to sniff me out.  And then it hit - the recognition.  No matter how long I had been away, he always remembered who I was.  And I just loved that.

Although mild-mannered is certainly a good way to describe him, he had a spunky little personality that just cracked us up.  His favorite food, by far, was carrots.  He knew the sound of the crisper drawer and would run to the kitchen as soon as he heard it opened.  If he was outside, you could be sure that he would soon be scratching at the screen to be let in.

And I can't tell you how many times he scared the daylights out of me while I dried my hair.  Not much set him off, but the sound of the hair dryer excited him in a way I've never seen.  He could be anywhere in the house and the second I'd turn that hairdryer on, sure enough, he'd be behind me barking up a storm.

He loved laying in the yard or on the deck, even if it was raining outside.  He loved to bounce balls off of his nose like a seal. 

He loved sleeping in my childhood room curled up with my fake polar bear rug.

He loved us a lot.  And we loved him a lot.

One of the reasons that I decided against the veterinary path was that I didn't think I'd be able to face all of the sad stuff that came along with dealing with sick animals.  That pet truly becomes a part of the family and when it's time to say goodbye, there is nothing easy about it.

Jackson (Jack, Jackie, Jacksonian, Quack, Quackadoodle, buddy, little guy) was one of us.  I am so glad that I got to see him this summer in Cape Cod.  And while it makes me terribly sad that he is gone, I look back on old pictures and memories and laugh at what a goof he was - even now amidst the tears, I am grinning at his "attacks" on the silverware as we unloaded it from the dishwasher.  Something about that noise.  To be in that sweet little head of his just for a day...

He brought happiness to our family and that's something I'll never forget.