Rowdy
loved by Mike & Wendy Miller
Billings,
MT
Rowdy came into our life with a little planning, a lot of looking and as a
surprise. He left our life very unexpectedly, abruptly and as a surprise.
In January 1999, I decided to get a very special Valentines Day present for
my husband. He had told me he wanted an Australian Shepherd, female, red
merle, with blue eyes. Now, this is a pretty tall order to fill but I did my
best.
A friend of mine brought me the name and phone number of a local breeder. I
called her and she had one puppy left of the last litter. He was 10 weeks
old, red merle, male, with green eyes. I made arrangements to meet during my
noon hour to see the puppy.
Needless to say, since I got him on my lunch hour, he spent the rest of the
day with me at work. When I got home that evening, I put the puppy in the
back yard and Mike came to the door. I just handed him the papers. And said
“Happy Valentines Day!”
We decided he must be hungry and went to town to get some food and stuff for
our new baby. Before we left, we barricaded him in the laundry room. When
we got back, he was snuggled up in the chair in the living room on my cloak.
He had obviously bonded to me. I named him Rowdy. He was a very happy
little guy.
As Rowdy continued to grow, we more or less treated him like our child. We
bought him special toys and treats, took him to “grandma’s” and just about
everywhere else we went. He just loved to go for a ride. If he even thought
there was a chance we might take him for a ride, he would go outside and lie
down beside the car and wait.
He was so fun to have around!! He loved to play in the water. He played in
his water dish all the time. When summer came, we bought him a wading pool.
It was so funny; he’d stick his head under water and blow bubbles out his
nose. If he made a little mud, he had to go splashing around in it. What a
water rat!!
Late in July, Mike had to go to Idaho for two weeks for AT. While Mike was
gone, Rowdy became very protective of us. He also became very protective of
our yard. If a vehicle came into the yard, he’d go bananas barking at it
until he saw who was in the car. If he was in the house when someone
came. He made sure we knew about it.
Rowdy was my constant companion. He was by my side as much as he could
possibly be there. When I would get home from work at night, there he was,
jumping to see me over the gate. My little jack in the box. He would
“talk” to me all the time. If he thought I wasn’t paying enough attention
to him he would talk to me so I would talk back to him.
Rowdy had friends. We would take him to my parents’ and he played with
Murphy, their dog. He also played with Big Foot, my brother’s Saint Bernard.
He touched everyone who met him. He liked to go to the armory when we had
things going on there and see the soldiers in Mike’s Guard Unit. They all
liked him. He even got to be on TV the day our Unit was deployed to go fight
the Wildfires of the Summer of 2000.
Rowdy was taken from us on a cold snowy Sunday morning in November 2000. He was outside playing in the snow. We decided to go to town and take him with
us so I called him. He didn’t come, which was not normal; he always came
when I called. I got dressed and went out to see where he was. Just as I
walked out the back door, I saw our beautiful little boy lying in the middle
of the highway. I just screamed “Rowdy!!” and went running across the yard
to where his little body lay in the road. He had been hit hard at a pretty
high rate of speed. He was really broken badly. I lifted his beautiful
little head and he looked at me with those gorgeous green eyes. Then he
closed them and he was gone. Some people helped me to get him to the house.
Mike met me at the door and just held me and we both cried for our little boy.
The next day, I called and made arrangements to have him cremated. We have
his ashes in a little box. We miss him terribly.
Rowdy touched a lot of people’s lives with nothing but joy. He was a very
happy dog and very much loved by everyone who knew him.
E-Mail MADDOGSGLORY@aol.com
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