My girl,
Thank you for sharing your little guy with me. Thank you so much for letting me have a front-row seat to all of the joy and excitement and snuggles Arendale brought to our lives. From the moment he arrived in 2016 (top picture), he literally just bubbled over with personality.
Do you remember how excited he got outside and would run like a crazy dog in circles? Do you remember how much he loved to chew on the chair? And you kept it even after it became unusable saying it had duppy prints?
He.was.always.into.something.
And that got him into so much trouble, didn't it? In fact, no matter how hard we tried to keep him out of trouble, he consistently found himself right smack in the middle of it. But you know what? We loved him even more for it, didn't we?
I am so sad that he is gone. I miss him so much and know that you do too.
Since he was such a sweet, sweet dog...I want everyone to know him, so I am going to write a post of 'do you remember when...?'. That way, as the years' pass and life happens, we will not forget puppy, duppy, doo and the daily joy he brought to our lives.
Do you remember this cone? And the emergency surgery? And how this cone is the reason we found out he was letting himself out of his cage???
Do you remember when we carried him from his cage to the kitchen to eat every morning and night and we would sing "Here comes Arendale curly tail, careening down the foody trail" (set to the tune of 'Here Comes Peter Cottontail') and he would swim his feet as fast as he could. We couldn't let him loose to run, because he would run as fast as he could to Buddy or Tanner's dishes and choke on their food.
Do you remember when we had to perform the heimlich maneuver on him? How scary that was???
Do you remember how he knocked his litter mates over and out of the way to come see you when we went to see the litter for the first time? From that first moment, he loved you.
Do you remember this picture? Here is a perfect example of what he did when you left a room.
Do you remember how he got his nickname 'Duppy'? We would say Puppy, Duppy, Doo we love you.
Do you remember how every time we came home from the dentist's office he would repeatedly sniff our knees for some reason? Specifically the backs of them?
Do you remember the one time we took him to board at the vet and we tried to explain how much he loved food and how careful they had to be to push his food down into his maze dish because he would literally eat past the point of choking (he literally almost passed out one time because he was choking and still was shoveling the food in). Anyhow, we came to pick him up and the tech said, "Ummm he is very motivated by food. The dog next to him accidentally knocked his food dish over and kibble went everywhere, so Arendale stuck his paws out of his cage and tried to shovel as much as he could reach into his mouth"
Do you remember how very much he loved you???? When you left a room, he would get this really instense look on his face, waiting for you to come back. I don't know how many times I came walking down the hall to see the two of you like this
Do you remember asking him to 'speak' and he would??? Here he is "wooooofing".
Do you remember when I wouldn't let him up on a curb because I knew he was going to eat all of the acorns? So he walked backwards and literally backed up onto the curb to get up there.
Do you remember how his favorite command was to sit?
Do you remember how much he loved going on walks and the neighbor's sprinklers? Or the summer he played with the hose in our backyard. He would pounce on it trying to catch the water and picked it up and shook it. Don't forget we have a slow-motion video of that.
Do you remember how much Arendale loved to climb into the dishwasher? And how many times we walked into the kitchen to find that he'd once again nosed the door open, climbed up, and inspected, licked, and sniffed every.single.dish. he could reach? How many loads of dishes do you think we rewashed?
Do you remember discovering him lose in the bedroom and the 'circle of destruction' he had made? Or the time we came home from the store to find him loose in the house and all of the things he had been into?
Do you remember how much he loved to sit on Daddy's electric blanket last winter, would lean into my side while Daddy and I watched Mentalist?
Do you remember how he would curl into the small ball and curl right into our sides during quiet time? Do you remember how he recognized his medicine alarm on my phone ("Let It Go") and how excited he got when we forgot that that was 'his' song and we were watching "Frozen"?
Do you remember when we had to take all three of your beds off of the stands because when he crawled under there he was chewing off the connector pieces that locked the stands safely into place?
Do you remember how much he loved to smell flowers?
Do you remember how much he loooooooooved snow? Do you remember frosting kisses? Do you remember how much he loved knee-burt? How much he loved peanut butter? How much he hated getting his nails clipped? Do you remember how sweet he was? And his puppy kisses he loved to give? Do you remember how he continually tried to dig a tunnel to china? Do you remember how much he loved apples and how delicately he would bite into them, and then he would lick it and his tongue would wrap almost all the way around the apple, he had a giraffe tongue. Do you remember how we could NOT figure out why he cowered when we stepped over the gates? Only to realize how often we tripped over them and how scary that must have looked to have us come flying in, arms flailing and flapping trying to catch ourselves so that we didn't accidentally squish him? Do you remember the hole he ate in the wall? The time he chewed on a cement block, the gates, the baseboards??? When he figured out how to unhook and release the gate lever? Do you remember how much he loved Daddy's beard? Do you remember how much he hated to help me take out the trash after the unfortunate incident? He would run around like a crazy wild dog with excitement and unfortunately one morning when I lifted the lid to throw the trash in, there was quite a bit of very, very cold water and it landed right on top of him.
Do you remember the time he tried to play with you and me, while we were playing Mickey Mouse?
Do you remember how hard it was to get him to focus on anything? He had the attention span of a fruit fly unless it involved food. And then nothing you did or said would distract him from it.
We took this picture two summers ago, it was at the end of a very, very long day - I was really tired. We tried to get him to look at the camera to take his picture, he finally did...
only a split second later something moved or made a noise...and that was the end of picture time.
Do you remember when I took him on a walk one afternoon after his nap time and he started peeing? Well, unbeknownst to him a squirrel, equally as sleepy stood right beside him looking in the opposite direction. At the same moment they turned and locked eyes and I am not quite sure who was more surprised but Arendale went nuts, dove after Mr. Squirrel, who thankfully was wide awake by then and able to quickly dart away.
Do you remember the time he tripped up the curb, turned, and tried on the opposite side, only to trip again?
Do you remember when you tried his little dress on him and how it barely fit?
Do you remember when I had the GREAT idea to put him in his cage with the elephant stuffed doggy toy that had the really cute peppermint on its tummy? And a few minutes later we heard a weird sound so we went to check on him, this is all that was left of that poor elephant and he had that squeaker in his mouth, trying his best to eat it. This also reminds of the time that he gutted his doggy bed, but he did it from the underside so we didn't notice for a few weeks. We could NOT figure out the tufts of hairy furry stuff (what do they stuff those things with????) that would float around on the kitchen floor, and we kept trying to figure out why his bed was looking so flat...until one day I caught him with his head under it. I picked it up and could NOT believe how much of that bed he had eaten.
Do you remember when we filled plastic tubs with books to set in front of most of the cabinets in the kitchen to keep him out and we came in the kitchen to see him doing this?
Do you remember in September when I decided to pull all of our Christmas DVD's out and put them on the kitchen island table, so I could get a shelf ready for them? And one morning, not too long after that I was trying to hide from him and eat breakfast. I looked over and saw that he had me all figured out. 😄
But most of all, do you remember how very much we loved him?
💕
And that brings me to the last moment that I held him in my arms, that horrible morning in October. And the vet whispered, "OK little guy, let's go to sleep for the last time." I miss you sooooo much. I am so sorry. Please forgive us. Goodbye, sleep tight. We love you.
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