Goodbye Obie

  I thought my next post would be to pass along the results of my visit to the Vanderbilt cancer specialist tomorrow morning, but life has a way of throwing curves. We lost our little dog Obie today.
  His breathing this weekend had been fast and shallow. Rita had a Dr. appointment at 1:00, so she dropped him off at the vet on her way. I had intended to go, but I didn't sleep much last night because of the terrible itching that accompanies the jaundiced skin, so I tipped back in the recliner after breakfast with Obie on my lap and we fell asleep. Next thing I knew, Rita was taking Obie and heading out to town. The vet gave him an antibiotic and said he likely had congestive heart failure. Rita had no sooner gone back to the car and left the parking lot when he died, laying on the car seat. Needless to say, she was pretty shaken.
  Obie was a teacup poodle rescue dog. Some friends of friends found him 7 years ago in winter, weighing 2.5 # and in very poor shape. They all had dogs already so we agreed to keep him until they could find him a permanent home. That was 7 years ago! At first we thought he was a puppy, but the vet estimated him to be at least 6 at the time, so he was now at least 13 years old. He weighed 3.5 to 4 # when we got him back into shape.
  He was very difficult to photograph....kind of camera shy. The top picture is in my office, perched on the pillow on a chair where he could see out the front window, and the 2 pictures below show him in his sweater, tucking, which is what I called it when he tucked up as close as he could get, and a quick shot out on the grass earlier this year. He was the epitome of a lap dog. All he lived for was for someone to sit down so he could curl up on a lap. When you walked through the living room, he would try to "herd" you to a chair and grab some lap time! There was never a sweeter, more loving little dog.
  So, goodbye little Obie. aka Obis, Mobie, Mr. Mobis, Obiator and many other nicknames. You loved and were loved and will be greatly missed.