After our Cockapoo, Lady, died, the Saling family desperately wanted another dog. Although we loved our Lady so much, we didn’t have her very long so I think getting over her loss was a little easier. As we started thinking about a new dog, we often visited a pet store in the nearby mall (OK, we’ve NOW learned NOT to buy pets at pet stores). We looked at all kinds of dogs in all sizes, shapes, colors and breeds but the dog we all fell in love with was a Shetland Sheepdog. On one particular visit, my sisters and I noticed the cutest little Sheltie – the cutest one we’ve ever seen, in fact – and were bummed to see his cage said “Sold – Going Home.” Little did we know that he was sold to our parents and he would become the best Christmas present ever. My parents left him with my Uncle Max to keep under wraps until Christmas Eve 1992 when he jumped out a huge box at my Grandma Cook’s house!Montgomery Sir Harrison is what we named him – what a gift he was and what a gift he continued to be through so many good times and bad times with the Saling family. For 14 ½ years, he was the best dog any family could ever ask for and as we all came together last Wednesday for his last day, it was amazing to hear how much this little pup touched our lives. We had so many stories and so many memories – all things that won’t ever, ever be forgotten.
I haven’t gone an hour without crying since talking to my Mom and getting the bad news last Monday night. But, not an hour has gone by without a wonderful Montgomery memory. There are so many – enough to fill a hundred internets – but I wanted to mention a few just so I can always keep them close to me.
1. Since he was a puppy, we always bought him toys and he was the only dog we ever knew who flat-out refused to play with toys. He just didn’t like toys. He preferred a sock or pretty much anything from my sister Erin’s room!
2. Thunderstorms and fireworks always made him crazy. During a bad storm or the Fourth of July weekend, we would return home to find that all the noise had caused him to jump into the bathtub. We’re not sure what that solved but it made him feel better!
3. He LOVED popcorn! Whenever my Mom would make popcorn, he would go bananas. He would be right there next to her and the stove and then all but trip her trying to get some on her way to the living room. She always gave him some – it was their thing!
4. He never was able to finish obedience training; thus, he never was allowed off-leash and he had NO CLUE what cars were. So, when he would escape – which he did quite frequently – it always was an ordeal. Usually, we would find him near someone’s garbage and, usually, we could lure him back to us with food. In fact, one time my Mom shook a box of Hot Tamales to lure him back into the car and it worked.
5. Montgomery had a freakin’ iron-clad stomach. So much for the dogs-can’t-have-chocolate theory because he lived through 14 Halloweens and probably 14 bags of some kind of Hershey’s Halloween candy. Each year, he would manage to get into and devour the candy – no matter what we did. He’s also been known to eat an entire pizza and an entire pound of outdated turkey from the deli.
6. When we used to take him to the groomer, they always would send him home with damn bows in his hair! We constantly explained that HE WAS A BOY but that didn’t seem to matter. Later in life, they FINALLY started sending him home with little bandanas around his neck and he would look so handsome. My sisters and I also loved when the groomer would trim the hair between his little foot pads and would shave him a duck butt!
7. At one point, when we all lived at home, we wouldn’t communicate with each other on who was feeding him when so we all feed him and he got HUGE. At his hugest point, my sister Stacey used him in her senior video project and it was hilarious.
8. One of my favorite memories of Montgomery is the way he would act when he would come inside after being outside for a while on a cold winter’s night. He would run barking from one end of the house to the other like some crazed dog – it still cracks me up. He also would get stuck in the snow quite frequently and my Dad would have to go “rescue” him in subzero temperatures.
9. While I was in grad school, I lived at home and that was an awesome time for me and Montgomery. He slept at my bedside every night and was there when I got ready every morning. He would huff at me when I stayed up too late and disrupted his beauty sleep and get pissed at me if I got up too early and tickled his ears. He was there for me each time Kevin and I would have issues while we were trying to work out our long-distance relationship. I can’t even count the number of times I would just grab him and hold him while I cried about one thing or another.
10. Once Kevin and I finally got it together and got married, I missed Montgomery so much. It was so hard to be away from him after being with him almost every day for two years. One weekend shortly after we got married, we took Montgomery to the apartment in Ann Arbor. Although he definitely was confused, he went with it and was such a good boy – well, with the exception of NEVER going to the bathroom when Kevin would take him outside at 5 a.m.!
I could go on and on but I’ll stop now and just say this:
Montgomery, we love you so much and will miss you forever.
All dogs go to heaven.
10-3-92 – 6-27-07
