Sassafras: Mi perrita preciosa - 10

Hey everyone.. This week's post is going to be a bit different, due to a pretty major event in my life this past week. Just a couple of days ago, my wonderful and faithful dog of 10 years died. I don't want to be mushy or anything, but I thought it might be nice to write some kind of tribute for her, so here it goes.

When we first got Sassy from my cousin (who breeds goldens in Colorado), she was - like many puppies - playful, happy-go-lucky, and inquisitive. The thing with Sass is that she never grew out of it. Even in the last months of her life, she was always REAL goofy and silly: she had to sniff every tree on walks, investigate any new object in the house, and communicate her feelings very clearly by staring at her humans and wiggling her eyebrows as needed.

My brother reminded me yesterday that a special thing about Fras was that she literally made friends with everybody. I'm biased, but Sassy was definitely one of the most happy-go-lucky dogs I've ever met. Any visitors to the Kurz house would always be greeted by a big golden furball bounding up to them and an exuberant tail swishing everywhere.. Sassy really had a way of sashaying her tail expressively (often resulting in pup hair everywhere ha). Like a barometer, her tail would tell us how she was feeling - up meant alert, low with a wide arc meant she was up to something mischievous, and vigorous wagging meant that people were home!

Man, there are too many memories to count.. Some favorites: her habit, on hiking trips, of constantly trotting up the trail to investigate the woods, then coming back (unprompted) to check on us every few minutes and make sure all was well; her inimitable smile; her extreme self-control in waiting until she got the "OK!" to get her food every night; her ridiculous but ridiculously endearing habit of stealing socks (partly for her own pleasure and partly to tell us that she had to go outside); her exuberant pride upon fetching the morning paper for us; her way of swimming like an otter; her boisterous back-wiggling, especially on freshly-mown lawns; her self-invented version of tug-of-war, which we dubbed "Wolf"; her liquid brown eyes; her way of nuzzling her head on your hand to ask for pats...

I could go on for pages, but I won't here. The point is that Sassy was a great great dog who loved people, had a charming sense of humor, and spread good-natured cheer bountifully. She wasn't a perfect show dog, she wasn't always exquisitely behaved (although she was normally quite good), and she wasn't the strongest or fastest.. But she was unquestionably part of the family, a steady bright spot in the household - comforting, joyful, silly.

I'll wrap up by saying that as hard as it is to lose a dog like Sassafras, the circumstances of her death almost couldn't have been better.. She had lived for over a decade, was happy & comfortable right up to her death, and she had - in the past year - gotten to make field trips to Princeton & the beach, as well as numerous local outings around our hometown.. Also, oddly enough, my mom had been making a diligent effort while I've been in Barcelona to send me updates on Sassy almost every day. I'll finish up the Frassy tribute with a couple of excerpts from my Mom's daily e-mails:

"While we were watching the news tonight, Frass was extra cute. Instead of snoozing, she had all 3 of her pup toys between her paws. She busily chewed on her green dog bone stuffed toy, then focused on the green & white rope toys... I think that she feared that she would miss her meal by going out into the garage. When I walked into the dining room, Frass silently--yet very definitely--communicated her displeasure. She danced around in place, then rushed toward Dad, skidded to a halt, plopped her pottom down on the rug, and pointedly stared at him while vigorously wagging (while sitting). When we both laughed at her antics, she actually harrumped and laid down. Frass is so funny...I just went to the kitchen to eat a few Fat Free Pringles. One fell on the floor. I simply announced, 'Git it,' and Frass appeared instantly! She eagerly snarfed it up. No need for a broom and dustpan."