runlikejoy

Displaced Stay At Home Californian in rural N. Carolina

The Many Faces of Joy

The Many Faces of Joy

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Howard


I said goodbye today to an old friend named Howard. She was my dog for 14 years.

I didn't actually want a dog when I got her, we had a female dog named Minnie and a male dog named Wang-ja and they mated and we had a litter of 10 puppies. We lived somewhere in the Napa Valley and so getting rid of 10 mutts was a little hard. We had Minnie fixed shortly after this litter so we wouldn't find outselves in this predicament again.

I had already picked out the name Howard but the dog I wanted out of the litter was a female. So that is how my female dog was named Howard.

When my grandmother died and my mother sold her house and I was forced to move away from the home I had known for so many years, my mom asked me "well you and Howard will have a nice time in Portland" and I realized that I was taking my dog with me. Until that time, I didn't really consider her my dog.

Some time between the 14 hour drive to Portland and the fact that I separated her from a pack of 5 dogs, she became mine, all mine. She was devoted to me. She followed me from room to room. She knew that I was hers and she was mine. She died today.

Howard loved people food, more than dog food. She loved squirrels and cats and was so optimistic that she would always win. She was a fast runner and could run like the wind. She also would bark when someone knocked at the door. And she would whine when she needed to go outside to pee. She never had to be housebroken, she was that smart.

We will miss you Howard Kim. But you are chasing squirrels somewhere else now and still running like the wind.