112

112 is how old my sweet holly was in doggie years. she was with our family for all of those years, since the christmas of my junior year in high school. if you had the pleasure of meeting holly, you will understand when i say that her life was not easy. she was dropped on her head at a young age, which caused her to act oddly. she frequently turned in circles, like a tiny little shih-tzu tornado headed toward the water bowl or her favorite napping spot. and when she barked, she often fell over to one side.

we thought she would never get potty trained, and tried literally everything in an effort to convince her to do her business outside. we even rubbed hot sauce on her gums when she had accidents in the house, but she was stubborn. we used to joke that holly was the only dog in the history of the world who actually LIKED the hot sauce.

pa’s ~~accurate~~ affectionate nickname for holly was “dumber” because we were certain there wasn’t a dumber dog anywhere. in spite of all of her oddities, she was loved. after pa died, holly was company for ma. she often complained about holly (especially when she woke up at 4am to howling and a box full of grossness), but as we sat in the vet’s office together on new year’s eve, it was clear how much she loved holly.

towards the end, holly was on doggie prozac, had doggie dimentia, couldn’t stand up, and was blind and deaf. ma sent me this picture about a month ago…it is holly curled up with her favorite stuffed animal (a puppy that we got for her when she was just a tiny puppy), sleeping peacefully in her box.