Ginger

Tuesday we lost one of our best friends. Ginger has been part of this house for almost 15 years. Who is she? Well, let me tell you......

Ginger was a mixed terrier that looked like Benji. She belonged to a friend of mine, but sadly enough, Ginger liked to chew on things that were not meant for chewing. One of those things was a new couch...... So Ginger got to move to my parents house. I don't remember how that happened, but it was a good thing for Ginger.

My parents totally spoiled their animals. Not only do they live inside, but they got peanut butter, slivers of food, cheese, just whatever. While the animals do tend to be overweight, they are not in horrible shape.

Ginger was often compared to an "old lady in a dog suit". The old lady part was really true, she was set in her ways. When my mom died, Gin got very depressed, moped about the house, always sniffing at closed doors to see if mom was there. Then dad remarried, and built a house next door. The new wife didn't allow "dogs" in the house, but we were living in Gingers real house anyway so she stayed with us. Funny thing is, I think Gin knew that it was her house and we were the boarders.

The dog was ritualistic. Every day pretty much the same pattern. At bedtime though, you would say, Gin, go to bed, and she went to her "room", okay, it was the laundry room but it was hers. One of the signs that she was getting older was the night she refused to go. Basically she decided that it was her house, she wanted to sleep in the room with us and we could just deal with it. So we did. The problem was her snoring. But we adapted.

Then it got to be that she would wake up at 3am and need to go out. I believe that she became diabetic towards the end, the peeing and drinking increased a lot. Lots of things changed for her. We knew that she was losing her eyesight and her hearing. I felt guilty at yelling at her but it was the only way that she could hear us. But at times she would get afraid because she didn't hear us coming and we would pet her and she would jump.

Many friends have talked about her, some came over to see her that last night. It was sweet. Comments: "I loved coming over and knowing that she was going to bark at me, then come sit on my foot for me to pet her."

The bug man's last trip here was with Gin knowing he was here but couldn't see him, so she barked at the wall until he left.

If she didn't like you, she wouldn't let you anywhere around, even if you were there to feed her.

My husband was feeding her for my parents once, discovered they were out of dog food and called my folks to see what he should do. Dad told him to make her a peanut butter sandwitch, smooth peanut butter only. Spouse had never done that before. Dad also told him how to cut the sandwitch for her. Spouse was in disbelief, but did it anyway.

When I figure out how to do pics on here, I will post some favorites.

There are many stories, the sweet thing about our vet is that when we took her in, she spent a lot of time with us listening to the stories and petting the dog. She didn't have to, but she did anyway. It was hard to do this, we always hoped that Gin just wouldn't wake up one day, but we loved her enough to do the right thing. And I know that Ginger is with my parents, complaining about how we treated her (but now this dog had her own cat that she picked out) which I'm sure was never as good as my folks. So anyway, heres to you Ginger, I miss you. Give mom and dad a bark for me