I'm sorry to tell all of
you that we lost our beloved Clifford to the ravages of
old age, hip dysplasia, and myelopathy in the hips and rear
legs. We knew it was time when he started losing stability
in his shoulders and front legs. He never seemed to be in any pain and
he enjoyed every day to it's fullest. This memorial is for
all who knew Clifford and his antics very well and for all
those who only knew him through my blog over the years.
Clifford was the best
dog I've ever known and had the privilege to live with. He
came to our home on October 3, 1998 by way of a meeting in
a parking lot to meet his breeder and to pay for him. He
was 11 weeks old. I met Clifford at the hour and minute
that my mother passed from this earth, though I wouldn't
find out about her passing until about 5 hours after.
He was very intelligent
from the start and just got smarter as life went on. I
never had to train him for anything. He just seemed to
know what was expected of him right from the start.
Whether it was knowing not to leave the yard, knowing
where I expected him to go to the bathroom, knowing to
herd Robert out of the street, knowing when to sit by a
crying little girl because she'd scraped her knees bad,
knowing when to go hide because he'd done something I
thought was bad, or knowing when to lean on us for a good
pet and belly scratch, he always just knew it was the
right thing to do. I often wondered if he learned some of
the things from Maxine, our Rottweiler, but he didn't meet
her until later in the afternoon on his first day home.
I have put together and
scanned in all of the pictures we have of Clifford from
the first day he came to us to his very last day. Please
enjoy the pictures and keep in mind that this is going to
take a few days or even a few weeks as I go along because
I like to tell the stories that go along with the
pictures. I would like to RSS this, but I don't know how
so you'll have to bear with me as I do this.
October 3, 1998 -
Clifford's first day in his new home. He was 11 weeks old
and weighed a whopping 32lbs. I put the papers down, but
learned within 2 weeks that he didn't really need the
paper. All he needed was for someone to hear his whine at
the kitchen door (usually me).
Clifford went on his
first trip up north with his family in February of 1999 and frolicked all over
the place with Maxine and Robert. He was 7 months old and
growing terribly fast. My biggest fear was that he was
going to grow into his monster sized feet and be Clifford
the Big Yellow Dog!! He loved snow very much
and loved to tunnel and do surprise jumps and pounces.
We discovered Clifford
had an affinity for cats in March of 1999 when we brought
Esmeralda home. She was a barn cat and stayed with us
until she decided that our neighbor, Greg, had a car she'd
rather live in instead. Then she moved in with a gentleman
up the street from us. She loved to roam everywhere and we
knew after awhile that she wasn't going to stay around
long. She was more like a gypsy cat than a house cat.
We learned that even
though Clifford was an excellent hunting dog, he knew the
difference between the animals we hunted and the ones who
took sanctuary in our home. In early summer of 1999,
Inspector Hector the rabbit came to our home. Our pastor
from our church was moving to a new parish and asked if we
would care for him and we said yes. He was an outside
rabbit, but he came inside occasionally for routine checks
and such. He had the run of the dog kennel during the day
and Clifford spent a lot of time playing with him.
Clifford displayed his
love for Robert and autumn leaves. If you raked a huge
pile of leaves together, he'd run and dive through the
whole thing, just like a little kid. He and Robert spent
hours, every year, in the leaf piles.
In May of 2000,
Esmeralda came home very pregnant and had a marvelous
litter of kittens. Clifford was the only other animal in
our home that was allowed near her kittens and she use
Clifford like a nanny to baby sit them when she wanted out
of my office to roam. She yowl at the door for Clifford to
be let in and she'd leave after she made sure all was
okay. Clifford demonstrated his ton of patience and how
good a nurse maid he was to those kittens. We kept two of
her litter: one was the long haired gray we called Janice
Joplin (when she meowed she sounded just like the singer)
and the calico, that climbed Clifford like he was a tree,
we called Dharma.
These are
pictures of Clifford up at John's cabin in Crystal Falls, in October of 2007 and
back home in his own yard. He loved being up north, but thought it undignified
to need to be tied up for any reason. He enjoyed playing with Harley and Storm
as much as he could, but he also loved the solitude of his own yard, playing
with his old football, and the company of Princess Vanity.
