Year 2005 Tributes

For pet names beginning with "R".

How shall I part with thee
When you are not in my delighted eye!
How shall I eat when you are not beside
To share the bit?
How shall I ever sleep
While I no more your lulling murmurs hear?

Dearest Ren, my brave gentle sensitive friend, sleep soft until we meet again.

Jane Rainey

It has been 9 months since Rex passed on. It's still tough without him around. We got him when he was just a pup and gave him one job; to take care of our youngest son, Michael, as he entered pre-school. He not only took care of Michael but also took care of all us. He saw Michael through his school years up to his first year in college. He did this with such vigor until his strong little heart finally got tired. I told him his job was finished and eased his pain on May 31 2004. Thank you,Big Guy, for everything you've done for us and we shall meet again someday.

David and Sylvia Camacho

My beautiful boy.
My funny buddy.

No more gentle soul than his has ever graced this planet.

Dan

Ripper and the Fabulous Five - June 2004 I was just about to go offline and go to bed last night when I get an email from a friend. Someone here in Stockdale had a baby. There was a Momma coon killed on the Stockdale road. It was laying on it's back in the middle of the road and these people drove by and saw a baby clinging to it's stomach. On their return trip an hour later the coon had been dragged to the side of the road and the baby still there.

Another hour someone came to their house to visit and said they saw it still there....so they went and got it and put it in this huge kennel in the garage. They were afraid of it and only handled it with a huge pair of yellow thick gloves. Gave it a half a syringe of carnation cream. Tried to find someone and finally got to my friend who got to me and asked me to take it. So out we go and picked "him" up. (did I mention it was 11:00 p.m.?) He's just a baby pretty close to the same age as Maggie. He was literally screaming when we went in the garage pushed up against the far back corner of this huge dog kennel that they keep their golden lab in (who by the way was on the other side of the door barking his head off and had been ever since they got the baby coon)

she said I'll get you the gloves...I said don't bother and went in the kennel and picked him up and wrapped him and cuddled him and he settled right down and snuggled into my neck. She couldn't believe that he settled like that and said that he had screamed the whole time they had him. I got him home and fed and put him in a comfy cage in the bathroom and he started screaming again it was awful!!! It sounded like he was absolutely terrified...I thought he might settle on his own and waited 5 minutes and then I just couldn't take it anymore. I have a baby's sleeping bag I bought for the cats so put him in it and zipped it up and put him on an old pillow and took him to bed with me. He just cuddled up as close as he could get to me and went right to sleep.

I was gonna keep him and Maggie separate but he's so frightened when I put him down that he starts this horrid screaming (I had no idea they did that with that much volume!) and I put them together. They are sleeping right now all snuggled up together. His name is Ripper. I'll get pics tomorrow. What bothers me more than anything else is the amount of people that went by that coon and just left it there including this couple who finally went and got it. Not to mention the idiot that dragged that coon to the side of the road and left that poor baby there!!!! I've gone back twice to look to see if there are any other babies but no idea even where to start looking my sister and I looked all around the body which is now down in the ditch and there's tall grass everywhere and lots of trees....There's a house right there and the lady came out to ask what we were looking for. I told her and she says "Oh yes, I know all about baby animals, my sister has lots of them.....she's a taxidermist" OMG....she said she had heard coons in the barn that night and I asked if we could look there and she let us but we found no signs of them. Well, at least we have Ripper and at least he has Maggie. The next day got a call from the lady in the house where Rippers Momma was killed....she found the babies wandering in her barn about 30 yards from the spot where the Momma was laying on the road.

Went and got them 4 of them so now I have 6 including Maggie. They were in the bottom of the barn, two of them on top of a wall and 2 in between the wall,

We had to take out a brick and stand on a pail to reach them but they are fine.

They're all fed and sleeping. They were hungry and scared but when Ripper was joined to them you could tell he knew them and was really happy to see them.

When we introduced him to Maggie he was leary of her but warmed up to her. When we introduced him to the 4 kits from the barn he was all over them like white on rice! Purring and mewing and touching them. They are all the same color with long tails and long thin noses. 4 girls, Ripper the only boy.

We released them all in early Sept/04, We put a tree house up in a tree close to the "coondo" that they had been raised in, thinking that they would den there but they didn't. On Dec 30th, we saw Ripper laying in between the treehouse and the tree. We got the ladder and went up to see what was going on. He was laying there dead, all 5 of his siblings were inside the treehouse. As I was taking Ripper away, Maggie kept coming to the door of the treehouse and looking at me, twice she put her hannie out and touched Ripper's fur. That night all 5 girls left and went back to wherever they are denning. They still come back to eat each night but not to stay. I believe that Ripper came home to die and the girls came with him and perhaps helped him to get home. I had a necropsy done and it shows that he had severe diarrhea and was dehydrated which brought on pneumonia. Possibly from something that he had eaten. I'll always remember and miss Ripper. He was a very special coonboy. - Lisa

Lisa & Laurie Peterson

There will never ever be another Roscoe. We love you and miss you so much. Thank you for your loving purrsonality, your conversational skills and your cattitude. You were so sick in the end, but in our minds you are still the 20 lb bearcat that saved us from leaves and leaf blowers. Rest in peace our sweet sweet boy.

Brenda and David Grandizio

Rouche, you were a great "furbaby" friend to all our family and to grandma too.
For 17 wonderful years you gave so much unconditional love to everyone who came your way.
During my single years you and Gizmo made every move with me and after marriage and babies you were always patient with the kids and Max.
Of the 3 pets that started our married life with us, only one is left here on earth.
You and Max are together along with all the other awesome pets we have had in our lifetime.
You will be so missed.
Grandma is having a really hard time without you.
Stay happy and watchful, someday we'll all be together again.
We loved you sooo much big guy and we always will.
Love,
Mommy and Grandma and kids

Ruby was my best friend for 10 1/2 years.  
She traveled in the RV and played with the grandchildren and was loved by all.  
She will never be replaced. @@ We will meet again in heaven, my little girl.

Barbara J. Mac Dougall

I miss you so very much - you were my best friend - Daddy cries for you too - We love you always, our big boy

Teresa Durma

I knew that Rutger was in the process of dying, but I wasn't ready to let go of him.  
He had been in my life for over 15 years, maybe longer since I am not sure of his age when our paths crossed.  
I was twenty eight when I first met Rutger. I lived on the second floor of a once beautiful mansion but was now run down and converted into 3 apartments and in a bad part of town.  
There was a guy who was homeless that walked by everyday and he was surrounded by dogs of all shapes and sizes. He said his name was Jimbo. One day in January he was walking by with all the dogs and he had this one puppy (maybe 3 months old)a blond shepard husky mix that he was carrying in his arms.  
I was on the balcony when I called down to him and asked him about his new pup.  
He called up and said to me, "Clementine, I's got to get rid of all my pets, the landlord won't let me have all of them and I'm gettin evicted." As he was talking to me this beautiful blond puppy looked up at me with the most tender brown eyes.  
I went downstairs to see him, (I wasn't well off then either).  
I asked Jimbo if I could hold his puppy, our eyes connected it was as if we were looking into each others soul.  
Rutger is what I named him. For 15 years he's been with me through so many life changing events.  
When his illness finally took his ability to stand on his own, I had to make the decision to put him at peace and send him on.  
As the doctor put the needle to his vein, I knew Rutger was in pain, but as I felt his life slip before me...a part of me wanted to go with him.  
My heart broke on February 5, 2005 at 2:40pm.  
But I know that Ruby and Laura Lynn, Brunhilda and my father were there to greet him.

love,  
your mom, Clementine