Rest In Peace

After 12 happy years with us our beloved Sedona passed away around 12:30 this afternoon. She was 15 years old.

Sedona came to us from the Ames Animal Shelter in 1994. We had just moved off campus with several housemates. One of our housemates was determined to get a big dog. We went along to control just how *big*(His first pick was as big as 70lb Sedona and only half grown!) because we knew he was too irresponsible to care for her.

And, as expected, within a few weeks Sedona was unalterably Der Deutscher's dog!

She was definitely an Alpha dog personality. She wouldn't accept me was her pack leader's mate until JBP was born some 5.5 years later. I'd tell her to do something and she'd just look at Der Deutscher, "Daddy, do I have to do what she says?" and only do it if he followed up my command with one of his own.

Sedona loved people and walks and my cat Nimitz, who we adopted the same day we'd adopted Sedona. In general, she did not like other dogs.

While most dogs will bark at, chase and even bite the mailman Sedona would wait eagerly for him and drop her tennis ball at his feet, something she would do for no one else.

If she even heard the word "walk" she'd start dancing and leaping like a dolphin. It got so we'd only spell the word, never say it.

Sedona and Nimitz came home to live with us the same day. She was three years old, he was four months. They quickly became the best of friends. He would egg her on until she'd start chasing him. And to strangers it would look like this big vicious dog was about to kill the little, defenseless cat. But, though Sedona would growl fiercely and tear anything inanimate in sight to pieces, she never harmed a hair on Nimitz' head.

Her favorite games were Tennis Ball Stuff, where she would see how many tennis balls she could stuff in her mouth in hopes of tricking Der Deutscher into letting her back into the house with at least one ball, and Big Stick/Bigger Stick, where she would grab a stick until Der Deutscher or I grabbed a bigger stick, then she'd want that one. One day Big Stick/Bigger Stick continued to the point Sedona was trying to drag an entire sapling home!

Although she wouldn't accept me as Alpha Female until JBP was born, once he came home she settled quickly into the Beta Female, or babysitter, role. She would sit next to him in the stroller while he slept in the front yard, guarding him. She would let him do just about anything to her, even sticking his little baby hands into her mouth to check out her teeth and tongue. And if he cried, especially while in his crib, she wouldn't rest until either Der Deutscher or I had responded.

Sedona's been the Queen Bee of our Human/Canine/Feline family for more than a decade. Today, we took her to the vet to check her cancer which had started bleeding Sunday. There was nothing more that could be done for her. She was in pain, exhausted, starving to death.

So, we gathered the entire family and surrounded her with our love on the floor of the examining room, petting her and re-telling family stories about her, as the vet released her from this earth.

She sighed and her whole body relaxed, as if a load had been lifted off her shoulders. She'd been living with this growing cancerous tumor for nearly three years, now she was free.

Sedona, we miss you and love you. I just pray we'll see you, once again in your healthy, athletic body, in heaven.

Nimitz' Lady