Sandy

OK folks, so this may be the longest post you'll ever read... Today my beloved Sandy died. Well, she died on Monday morning, and I found out this morning not too long after. Mom found her sleeping on the porch and she just knew something was different. They saw her earlier that morning and said she looked fine. It was just her time. She was old, and she lived a good life. The pic above is a fav of mine... that is, of the nice portrait ones I have of her. Below I have many great memories with her that I would like to share in her memory. She was seriously the best dog EVER. Thanks to you David for winning the bet, and thanks to you dad for following through with the deal. Dave... don't lose those golf skills man... they are handy :)

So I got Sandy when I was 13 years old and I spent all kinds of time with her. Good and bad. I trained her and taught her all she knew. I was the lucky one who got to clean up her pee when she was in house training... which is quite the chore for a St Bernard (one time I specifically remember Jon and Dave yelling for me to clean up one such mess and I seriously thought they had dumped a bucket of water on the ground. It was only after they yelled at me to get down and smell it that I believed them... and no I did not smell it.)
Sandy was wonderful to our new member of the fam, Shugo. She clearly did not like him much at first, but he grows on you like a weed and she quickly took the mother role in his life. Many times I caught her licking his head like he was her own...

She taught him the best place to sleep (of course right where you can see in the house and watch me 24-7). I would like to note too that this is only a few days after he had been with us. She did take to him quickly.
And as he grew, she continued to love him :)

During the summer in SD I would shoot horse shows and I would bring her with me. She would follow me around, find the closest shade as long as it was within about 15-20 feet of me and just lay down. Never any problems with her. It was great too cause people always knew who I was... "the photographer? Oh, that girl with the red hair and huge St. Bernard? Yeah, I know her..."
Yes, she rode IN the car. Everywhere. The ranch, the beach, the post office, the vet, the park, Auburn, Santa Barbara, Tamara's (Brian's Sis), anywhere and everywhere she loved to be with us.

Yes after the beach she would be slobery and wet, and though it doesn't look like it Brian still loved her even then... :) I always told him not to talk to her in the car... if you talked to her she wanted to get right in your face and give you a kiss. I always just let her do her own thing in the back and she never bugged me while I was driving.

Her at the beach... not always a good idea. If it was hot then she would like to get in the water, which is nice, but if she gets in the water she then feels the need to drink the water and then... well, then she gets diarrhea. Ew.

She LOVED the car. This is a St. Bernard folks... they are lazy, and they would seriously rather go for a ride in the car than take a walk. That was her outing everyday... a ride in the car and she was happy.

This is funny. She loved to lay in the exact same spot in our yard day after day after day. So, we decided (since we didn't want to pay whatever our landlord would charge us when we moved out) that we would put up a fence to keep her away from it, let it grow back and take the fence down... didn't work.

She is just so cute, I loved to get on the ground and just pet her...

Slobber and all... she was awesome

She loved to do this. If I was standing somewhere with my legs even slightly apart, she would come up behind me and squeeze her huge head and body between my legs so she could get through and sit on my feet and have me rub her back. Bad puppy habit that I didn't break... luckily she wasn't any taller cause she would have been taking me for a ride.

Fun pics while we were bored... this was while Brian was away and before Shugo... What else is a girl to do?





And yes... the last day, the last moment we saw each other. I was giving my hugs good bye and of course the cameras came out. For those of you who can't tell Sandy is the one laying down. Gunther is sitting, he is my parents' Saint, and also Sandy's husband. They had two litters of pups together. He just wanted some lovin' too. Notice Sandy is much redder than Gunther. When we got her the people we bought her from had actually nicknamed her "red"... funny huh? It was meant to be.

Seriously she was a great great dog. I will always cherish my memories with her and I am very grateful to have had her with us in SD for the last year and a half. I honestly kinda feel like she died a little sooner cause she was heartbroke that we left her. I know she was happy and very well cared for at my parents', but her and I had a special bond and attachment that will not be replaced. I know you all think I am crazy, but this is my dog, this is my life, I love my animals, you all know this. This may be the sappiest you ever hear me on this thing...

Below is one of my favorite videos of Sandy. In SD we would always leave our side door open so Sandy could feel like she ws a part of our life (we didn't allow her in the house cause neither of us wanted to clean up after all that slobber and hair!). I love how Brian gets in her face and I can just see what she is thinking... " Oh I love you too. Oh! Can I come in! Wow you love me so much! I will come in :) Uh Oh... you don't love me? I guess... um... ok I will go out." Yeah watch the movie you will see it all. And by the way, Brian does that to every dog. I think it's the best way that he embarrasses himself. He just sticks out his tongue and starts breathing like a dog, and then I give him that look like, "What the crap are you doing?" and he says, " What? They like it." Apparently Sandy did... we love her and will always miss her!