Butters

This dog held a special place in our family for the last 10 1/2 years. Evan and I brought her home shortly after we bought our first home together at Christmas time in 2008. She was the cutest puppy and I still remember the first two weeks we had her she didn't bark. I thought we had hit the jackpot. After those two weeks were over I remember Butters turned into what we like to call "the worst puppy ever". She loved to play and loved to bite me. She had endless energy that even two walks a day couldn't control. During our walks she loved to chase birds and rabbits and bite me randomly. I remember thinking it was a good thing it was winter and I had a winter coat on so I couldn't feel her sharp puppy teeth on my arms.

I took her to dog obedience classes, where she thought she was going on a massive play date with 10 other dogs and was very perturbed that I would not allow her to play with any of her new doggy friends. She was the star pupil in her class...whenever the trainer had the leash. When it was my turn with her it was usually a disaster. We finally got things figured out and she finally accepted that I was her owner; not the other way around. Butters excelled in obedience classes and moved up through the advanced level within a year. As long as you had a treat for her she was a very good student.

Butters was always excellent with kids. She loved to play hide and seek with the kids where we would cover her eyes, the kids would hide one of her toys and then we would give her hot and cold commands to help her find it. She always understood that she couldn't play as rough with these little people like she could with me or with Evan.

Once our babies moved into the highchair Butters realized these new little people were her very favorite people. Butters loved to lick their little hands filled with food and shove her head under the tray (while babies were still strapped in) to move tiny legs out of the way so she could find whatever food that had missed their mouth. And at the end of mealtime she was more than happy to step onto the chair and clean out the highchair for us.

In these last 10 1/2 years Butters never missed an opportunity to steal your food. Pizza Hut Breadsticks, doughnuts, a wrapped muffin still on the sellers table at the Farmers Market and that same day a discarded wad of gum on the pavement. An entire banana, spinach dip at one of the kids birthday parties and even the discarded netting from the holiday ham at my parents house. There was only one thing she would not go for. Pumpkin.

Butters loved to go for walks but was not a runner. Evan liked to describe her as a parachute slowing him down and once she managed to wiggle out of her collar while Evan continued to run without her. He said once he realized he didn't feel any resistance he looked back and she was just standing in the middle of the sidewalk looking at him like, "I am not here for this. Please take me home."

This last month we knew something was going on with our beloved dog. She was panting a lot. She could no longer jump up onto our bed with us and then last week she wasn't begging at the table for food. On Monday she wasn't woofing down her food in 30 seconds as usual and it took her over 2 hours to eat what was in her bowl. Evan took her to the vet the next day and an x-ray confirmed that Butters had a mass larger than a grapefruit on her spleen. This large mass was pushing on her other organs making it hard for her to eat since her stomach was not its normal size. Her blood work showed that she was already bleeding internally and we both knew it was time to say good-bye.

We took her home for one more night. Gave her as many spoonfuls of peanut butter as she wanted and as a family took her out to a lake and walking trail so she could watch the geese or ducks swim. We let her sniff around as much as she wanted and then took her closer to the water. She of course plopped right in and tried to start swimming around. It was a great moment where our whole family laughed with her as she quickly realized swimming was hard work and just floated around. Even though I'm sure she was in some pain that night she was happy.

When we told the kids that Butters was sick and she would be going back to the vet and not coming back home with us Liam understood right away and was, of course, upset. Caroline just kept asking when we could get another pet and Lucy was just running around the room unaware of it all. I will say though that I am so proud of the two older kids. Liam was upset but he accepted it fairly quickly. 15 minutes after our discussion Caroline came running up to us in tears because it finally sank in but again her acceptance of us not wanting to have Butter suffer or be in pain was wonderful.

Evan and I are still mourning the loss of our beautiful lab. For me it is going downstairs and not seeing her on the couch where she always has been. Or under the table looking at us with disgust because we tried to snuggle with her. Cooking in my kitchen and not having her under my feet begging for any scraps. She was a part of our everything and she will be missed greatly.