Right as I’m typing this, I’m listening to Mark’s show streamed from yesterday. He’s talking about his dog Sprite.

This past Monday, October 22, I had to put my best friend to sleep. It was one the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in my life.

Cheyenne, was an American Eskimo dog. She was a gift to me for Mother’s Day 1992 and she was part of my family for over 15 years. She was with me during the good times and she helped me deal with some of the roughest times in my life. Whenever the chips were down, my little girl was there to lick my face and always had this big smile on her face. I was truly blessed to have this sweet little soul in my life.

I will always remember the good times. Cheyenne loved to go for long walks. It didn’t matter if it was snowing, raining, thundering and lightning. She would get her leash when she saw me put my sneakers on. I would take her hiking and she even had her own little back pack, which I would load up with doggie biscuits and her water bowl. We would then go swimming in the river. I remember one summer when the river was very low due to a lack of rain. There were a ton of crawfish in there. We started walking on the stepping stones across the river to the other side. Cheyenne was right behind us, dodging all the little lobster monstrosity crawfish. She kept trying to nip them through the water. She learned quickly when one of those little guys clipped her on the nose!

Cheyenne loved her “Mighty Dog” dog food, but her favorite food was pizza crusts! Even though she was blind and deaf in her later years, she could smell pizza a mile away. She loved vanilla cupcakes on her birthday.

Cheyenne was also a talented singer–well she would howl at certain songs. There was one song, I called the Chiney Dog Song. When it played, she howled like mad. Also she went crazy with that silly dog-barking Jingle Bells song at Christmas.

She started to become very sick and stopped eating. I didn’t think she would make it through the weekend. On Monday, she was still barely alive, and I knew it was her time. I cradled her in my arms wrapped in a warm blanket and kissed her little furry head as my friend drove me to the vets. Even though she was really out of it, blind and deaf, she licked my face as if to say, “Don’t worry, Mom. It’s going to be ok, don’t cry.”

I love you, Cheyenne and I will miss you and never ever forget you as long as I live. We will meet again at Rainbow Bridge and we will go for long walks just like we used and cross the beautiful rivers on the stepping stones. Let’s hope there are no crawfish!

Keren from CT