Roxy

Missing the Girl Already

Ever since Mike and I married, Tiki, Honeybee, and Roxy have been part of our family. 

Tiki is a cat. She is cute and cuddly when she chooses… but aloof and independent at other times. 

 

Honeybee, or “Bee” for short, is an Australian Blue Heeler. She is beautiful, about sixteen years old, and fully dedicated to Mike. She puts up with me. 

I can give her a treat and she’ll gently take it from my hand. She lets me scoot up next to her and scratch behind her ears. But Bee’s eyes are failing and so is her hearing. If I approach her without warning she may snap. Once she knows it’s me she calms down. I always try to warn her first.

 

Then there is Roxy. I never expected to love Roxy. She is a full-blooded pit bull, though I understand her official breed is Staffordshire Bull Terrier. 

 

Meet Roxy

I had heard stories…horror stories…about pit bulls. I understood them to be mean, ferocious animals ready to tear the head off of anyone who came near them. 

 

Roxy is none of that. She is a kind and caring dog. She is likely the most loving dog I’ve ever known. Roxy doesn’t just wag her tail she wags her whole body. Pick up a stick and throw it and she is in heaven.

 

Roxy loves to chase squirrels and rabbits. She never catches anything. In truth I don’t know what she would do if that ever happened. She is simply playful.

 

Roxy is also very brave. One day she went after a terradactyl…okay it actually looked a lot like a blue heron to me, but it was one big bird. She ran after the thing, barking as loud as she could. 

Roxy's terradactyl

As the bird flew over the fence, Roxy stood watching. 

 

Finally, she turned and stared at me. I could almost read her mind. 

How did he do that? I want to do that.

 

I love that girl.

 

So it is hard, but this week we will take her to Shawn’s house. You see, Roxy is his dog. About the same time we moved here, our son Shawn moved as well. He works, so he needed to make his new house a safe place for Roxy while he's on the job. 

 

Shawn put up a privacy fence and recently installed a special order sliding glass door with its own built in doggie door. That will give Roxy access to the screened in porch. He then installed a doggie door in the porch door so Roxy can go outside at her pleasure. She’s going to love that. Sunbathing is one of her favorite pastimes. 

Sunbathing is a
favorite pastime.

 

It’s kind of like sending your child to college. You know she’ll love it, but you’ll miss her terribly. You know she’ll have all her needs met, but you can’t help but wonder what she’s doing. Will she think we didn’t want her? 

 

No. Just like the college kids, Roxy will be having the time of her life. She won’t even think about us until we pull up in the drive for a visit. 

Then she’ll run to us wagging her tail. And her whole body.