If pets have one downside, it’s that they just don’t live as long as us.

Sadly, yesterday we had to say goodbye to Lady Dog.

While we are all very sad,  she had a good long life (especially for a Lab) and was spoiled rotten every day of it.

I don’t have any pictures of her as a puppy, but she was a cute little thing. Dad got her not long after they moved from the city. We’d had dogs when I was a kid and we lived in the country,  but the city house of my teens didn’t have a yard big enough for a big dog (we like bigs dogs, and we cannot lie), so I think he was thrilled to have a yard big enough, and couldn’t wait to have a doggo running around again.

As a puppy, she put teeth marks in almost every single shoe I owned (but oddly, no one elses), and once memorably ate a DVD remote.  But she was a good dog, smart as a whip (though stubborn as a mule!)

She loved water. You couldn’t keep her out of it. Whether it was a lake, a pond, a creek, a ditch, or even just a muddy puddle… if she could roll in it, she would.

Dad had a plastic wading pool that we’d fill for her on hot days in the summer. When not in use, he kept it behind the shed. But Lady knew it was there, and all you had to say was “Go get your pool!” and she’d drag it out so you could fill it up for her.

I used to joke that she wasn’t the family pet – she was my replacement after I moved out (and I occasionally referred to her as my little sister). She was definitely a family member, involved in almost everything Mom and Dad did. When they’d get drive-thru, Lady always got her own hamburger, when they got fish and chips, a piece was ordered just for Lady.

She was an excellent road trip companion.

She even attended Ron and Jenn’s wedding, dressed in a green polkadot bandana to match Miss Rowan and Miss Paisley.

Miss Paisley and Lady were almost the same age, and the pair grew up together.

When Jem came along, Lady was a touch jealous at first.

But it didn’t take her long to figure out that she now had someone else to play with.

And soon they were best buds.

You will be very much missed you Sassy-Lassy-Pain-in-the-Assy. You were the best little sister a girl could ask for!