Roxie is in Doggy Heaven.

Roxie

Age 10, ~1979 - March 24, 1989

This is Roxie, a runt-of-the-litter lady-dog with alpha-dog attitude.

Roxie's 'Hollywood Close-up' on our... er, her... sofa.

Nickname: Tish, Princess

Thirty-odd years ago, we vowed (while barely-acqainted): no kids and no dogs. Nothing would tie US down! We'd travel, we'd buy fancy cars, we'd have expensive "people toys", we'd... blah, blah, blah.

God (bless Him!) had other plans.

While working at a junkyard, one of the partners offered us a purebred German Shepherd pup who behaved so badly (we were told) that both prior "owners" had returned her. She was slated to become a buddy-dog for Baron, the moose-sized mutt who kept the outdoor auto parts safe after-hours.

There were two wrinkles in that plan: first, she started on the wrong side of Baron. (Puppies don't know not to eat from the bowl belonging to The Big Dog.) Second, she was too little to leave outside overnight... she'd easily slip under the fence.

Sssooo... we took her home to our no-pets-permitted aparment, where (we decided) we'd keep (hide) her "only 'til she was big enough not to fit under the fence". (If you're a dog lover, you can see where this is going. At the time, we weren't, so we didn't.)

By the time Roxie was "fence-proof", she owned us. Not long afterwards, we were busted by the landlord and given a choice: dump the dog or move! (We moved, of course!) Roxie was our first dog and she trained us well. The experience was so rich and wonderful, that we recycled many other dogs in the years since she died. We like to think of our home as Doggy Heaven on earth. (My brother Dave insists that he's coming back as one of our dogs when he dies.)