My sister posted this on Facebook today. Mandy was truly the greatest dog we ever had (sorry Molly and Bailey I love you both) This made me tear up. I am using it without permission because she was mine also.
Yesterday was the 29th anniversary of "Mandy's" death. Mandy was a Sheltie mix and a great "mutt"!! The secretary at Whittier where Jay was teaching had a neighbor that had a dog who with 10 puppies and she was getting rid of them. The secretary found homes for most of them and Jay brought the mother and 4 puppies home in 1970.
We found homes for all of them but I couldn't let the last one go. She slept in Jay's room until December 8th when we had our Sheltie "Smokey "put to sleep" due to cancer. I was a mess and that night Jay asked if I wanted Mandy to be in my room.
She went with me everywhere and shared my life for almost 14 years. She stayed on the dock when we were swimming in Leech lake. Barked if anyone came into our houses but only if I was home; if I wasn't home she didn't make a sound.
She was a "garbage dog" and if she could get it she inhaled it. Once mom was holding a doughnut, talking and Mandy reached up and took it. She stole an entire loaf of banana bread off the table and ate one of mom's opal earrings. (We think, she was caught chewing/licking one and I wasn't about to check the backyard!
She even dragged me across a field on the Red River Valley when I lived in Halstedt Minnesota to what I thought surely must be a wild animal only to find some movie popcorn someone had thrown out their car window. She almost died once for eating something she had found in our neighborhood in the days people let their dogs outside without being leashed or fenced in.
She and I won our dog obedience classes competition but she refused to come when called and led me on many a chase. UNTIL Jay spent some time with her and a leash with treats and "by God she was going to learn to come!" (and she always did....for me. Jay)
She cornered a skunk once but didn't get sprayed, laughed (I think) when I got in the car parked in front of mine and panicked, and forever will be in my heart. She will be at the head of the pack of other dogs who are in my heart when I cross the "Rainbow Bridge."
Addendum. I asked Ginny for more pictures of Mandy Here they are: (Note the best way to view them is to click on the first picture and then click through to see them all in a sort of manual slideshow.
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