| Memories of Juju | |
| Reminiscing from Violetcows |
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The Wonder of Mutts The Meaning of M.U.T.T. Rowena and Ziggy Juju Baron Von Dawg Sparky Baby Girl Chance Sarsha, Jo Jo, and Shaka Frankie Valli Kodak, Keesha, and Fuji Lobo Bill's Bunch Violet Brat and Buttons Trinity Jackson Sheba Tasha The Mixed Breed Gallery The Photo Gallery |
I loved her upon first sight. She came bounding up, this big ball of fluff and fur and she only had one eye. Feeling emotionally incomplete at the time, I saw her physical incompleteness as a perfect fit. I adored her and vowed to devote my life to this 30lb mutt who promised, with her soulful eyes, to do the same.
Shelters and rescues are the absolute best places to find mixed breeds as well as the lonesome roads of any rural area, town or city.
Why a mixed breed? Why not? A dog is a dog is a dog and every dog deserves a loving home. Adopting from a shelter, even a no-kill shelter, is saving a life so that is something to feel good about. The best part about having a mixed breed dog, though, is letting everyone guess the lineage. Society is so breedist and so into naming things that it frustrates many to no end to be unable to determine the lineage or pedigree of something. They always ask "What breed or kind of dog is that?" and expect an answer with authority and assuredness. Juju was a Border Collie, American Eskimo, Whippet, Samoyed, Spitz, Spaniel; she was a different dog to a different person. Truly, an enjoyable experience to hear the kinds of breeds people can come up with (Akita? - I just don't see it!).
Juju was a special dog, a dog who (in her youthful heyday) could leap six feet in the air in a desperate attempt to get at those pesky squirrels. In her later years, she needed to be picked up to be put on the bed or even to climb stairs. A gentle spirit with one big brown, watery eye that could gaze deeply into everyone who met her. She was a dog who was rather disdainful of other dogs and preferred sitting on the bench with the people...a queen does not cavort with her hapless subjects. ;) She had a special way of making a gloomy day seem bright; of making a depressing life seem worth living. Witnessing a person crying or being sad, Juju always made sure she plopped down in front of them, laid her head on their lap and let them know that they were, indeed, loved. I have never been around another dog so keen on my emotional disposition, so ready to provide pack support and so giving of her very gentle kisses.
She was with me through junior high, high school and the first three years of college. She was there for my first kiss (well, not literally present), my first heartbreak, my depression, my loneliness, my happiness, my first time behind the wheel, prom and all the little things that every teenage girl goes through during those years. She was always there for me. But nothing lives forever and the time on earth for a dog is so limited. During her later years, I used to wake up in the middle of the night just to make sure she was still breathing. I was so paranoid that she would just die in the middle of the night. When we adopted her she was five years old and at age six she was diagnosed with Cushings Disease and a grade 3 heart murmur. At the ripe old age of 15 she wad diagnosed with advanced Congestive Heart Failure. At that point, it hit me that she would be gone forever and no dog (nope, not even sweethearted Mina) could ever replace the regal, gentle, queenly Juju....no dog. Three days after the diagnosis, on a Monday, I got the call from my parents that Juju had died. I was an emotional wreck and my parents had to drive up to Davis to bring me home so I could hug Juju one last time. Seeing her lying there, I knew she was not my dog anymore - there was no life, no spark of life in that one big eye, everything was so cold and so dead.
I will always remember how she would follow me everywhere, how she would know when I was going to be home, how she would welcome me home as if I had been gone decades and not a few weeks. I will always remember those petite paws, the fluffy hair, the hairless butt when Cushings took away her hair, the velvety soft head and the doe-like eye. I will always remember how she yearned for a good butt scratch, how she would place her paws in my shoes to prevent me from lacing up and how she would always disappear to my room when I was about to leave. I love her with all my Juju dog heart and will always remember her fondly. She sure was a very special dog.
