November 1, 1996 to September 1, 2009
Our family has lost our little Nacho. He passed over yesterday morning, September 1, 2009 just two months short of his 13th birthday. I don’t’ want to write about his death. I want to write about his life. From the moment he came to us he brought us smiles. As a puppy he breathed new life into Taku, our grown dog. Taku fell head over heels madly in love with him and decided he was her Christmas gift actually smiling and her tail wagged so and she immediately adopted him as her own and carried him in her mouth and helped me train him to “go” outside. She lived a long 16 years. For a large dog, that is incredible. She was not well and I believe that her love for her little guy helped her to live longer.
Nacho was named for the triangle shape on his butt. Tere felt it looked like a Nacho so that was what we called him. He was our baby. Just to give you a few examples of how gentle he was, when I would bring him for his three month blood work to check his levels (he suffered from Cushing Disease) the vet would let the assistants practice taking blood from him because he would simple lick their hand even though it was uncomfortable for him. During the day he would lay in a ray of sunshine in the living room and Tere would take out the guinea pigs that would crawl all over him and he simple would watch and never hurt them or move quickly to frighten them even when the little pigs were teething and nibbled on his floppy beagle ears. He would let Tere’s pet turtles walk across his paws. Outside he would share the stale bread with the ducks (Henry and Henrietta that visit annually every spring before we open the pool on the way home from the south) and he would lie on the deck and watch the squirrels eat the peanuts never attempting to disturb their breakfast.
He had such a sense of humor and he knew it and knew just how to be the “on stage comedian”. He would make us laugh by coming up on the upper deck while we swam and using the pool as the biggest water dish in the world. He would bay the entire time we walked him with his beagle bay. The sound warmed my heart. He decided he was the rinse cycle on any bits of food left on the dirty dishes and actually climb up on the dishwasher door and lick them until he got caught and told to get down and he would do it every day of his life. I remember once coming home and he was so excited running back and forth to show me his great hunting discovery. He had figured out how to open up the snack cabinet and helped himself to a very large container of cheese balls which he totally consumed and was showing me the remaining crumbs as if he had discovered gold on his daily hunt. At one of Tere’s birthday parties she had a bunch of kids over for a swim party and he discovered the pizza pies. When the kids were playing he helped himself to an entire pie. He had consumed 7 slices before Bill discovered him and played tug of war with the 8th and Bill lost the tug. Nacho won the war and ate the 8th piece. He moaned all night with an engorged belly. Poor baby. We called the vet and asked what to do. He said I should just count my blessings it wasn’t a sausage pie. Once during a barbecue, Bill had made hotdogs. Nacho got up on his tiny little legs and took four at once hanging out of his jowls like hotdog fangs and running across the lawn so as to be able to eat them. He ate them. While he was so very gentle and loved us all so unconditionally, his one great love was food you can see. When company would come he would meander over to sniff and get petted and when they would be leaving he would cry and bay at the door begging them to stay a bit longer, as if to say “don’t leave I’ll miss you”. Whether it was a friend, the pizza guy even the water man.
After the discovery of his Cushing and realizing he was making so many steroids and having hi put on meds he did loose some weight. He was a little muffin butt. I say that because his butt looked like the top of a muffin, no joking, it really did. Well at night he was allowed a little more treats when he lost the weight. Every night I would do my little “cheat” a few oreos and milk, my secret cheat and pour him in a tiny little blue bowl some cold milk and give him a vanilla wafer or a biscuit and we would have “cookies and milk” together. I will miss that more than I can explain. His smiling eyes and his little freckled beagle legs that were so short and yet so strong and muscled. I will miss his little nose and his jowls and his snoring and his running in his sleep when he dreams of probably hot dogs in the back yard. I will miss him always.
His life was too short. We wanted him to stay and he tried, he really tried to stay. His little body just couldn’t’t do it anymore. His heart said one thing but his time was spent. I know in my heart that he followed the light across that rainbow bridge and Taku was waiting for him. I can see him in my mind’s eye rolling in the grass and playing and asking Taku, when’s dinner. I miss you dear Nacho…I am aching for you…I will see you again someday…be happy…I guess since you always were, I should just say…be Nacho…I love you…mommy
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