Louie

Louie was my best mistake. I owned his mother, Maggie Moo who had been one of a litter my sister had rescued from a Texas roadside while she and her boyfriend were travelling cross-country in a Winnebago. They offered me the pick of that litter when they arrived back in the Cities with a tub full of puppies. I had Maggie for several years and hadn’t gotten around to “fixing” her while we moved to various temporary homes. I purchased a house specifically so she could have a yard of her own. The first summer in the new house she was outside enjoying herself when a rogue male dog got into our backyard. Before I could shoo him away he was attached to my sweet Maggie Moo. Three+ months later Louie was the first born pupped of a litter of 5. He tumbled out of Maggie Moo’s womb with “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” playing in the background. He was the largest and furriest of the 5 and had a bit of white on the tip of his tail. As soon as he could waddle around he imprinted on me, effectively choosing me as his human.

Over the years he joined me on 3 cross country road trips (twice to California and once to DC) and umpteen short jaunts to South Dakota and back. One of his favorite things was stopping in open fields and parks and chasing burrowing creatures (gophers, groundhogs etc). He had several brushes with fate including surviving kidney cancer and escaping a neighbor’s fenced yard several blocks away and running away to home. He managed to out live his dog mom by several years. He was an informal therapy dog to homeless and/or mentally ill clients who would visit him when he joined me at work.

Going to work, driving around town, walking outside, hanging out at home, all feel wrong because he is no longer accompanying me. Intellectually I know he lived a good long life at 14.5 years. Still my heart is broken and I wish he could have stuck around just a bit longer. He died more or less peacefully on his porch. The accompanying photo shows him about a year ago on his favorite spot. While I’m sure I will have more dogs in my life, Lou was singular and cannot be replaced.