The Loss of an Animal is Never Easy

Animals play such a large role in nearly all of our lives. Some of us are dog people, while others hold their allegiance to cats.

For our family, dogs have been a huge part of our lives.

When I was just a young boy, my parents got a Golden Retriever from my dads high school friend. His name was Zenith and he was so close to me! We slept together almost every night.

When Zenith passed away, our family was heartbroken and to ease the pain they got a new dog, Skip. Skip was a Schipperke, a Belgian boat dog.

The crazy thing about Schipperke's is that they all look so similar to each other. Most of the time, they weigh between 11-18 pounds and have a docked tail.

We got skip a little over 14 years ago and we have had some great times with him! Although he wasn't always the nicest dog growing up, he got sweeter as he got older.

Over the years, Skip has had numerous nicknames including:

• Skippy
• Mibby (and just about anything with the ending "ibby")
• Badger Dog
• Kimberly

Here is a recent picture of Skip with my dad

Here is Skip a few years ago with one of my sisters!

Times were not always easy for Skip as he often had run-ins with the neighbors and friends. I remember one time he got out of the house and dashed over to the neighbors yard. The neighbor was cleaning up his yard and skip jumped up right as the guy was bending down to pet him and skip bit his finger. Skip was an achilles killer. When people would leave the house he would dart for the door and try to nip your achilles!

Whenever friends would come over, he would smell them. Based off the scent he garnered from the individual he may stay with them all night or leave them alone entirely. As he got older, he started appreciating people more and loved everyone.

Once you started petting Skip, it was nearly impossible to stop. He would reach out to your hand with his paw or he would take his nose and dig it under your hand until to started petting him again.

As he got older, his eyesight and hearing started to worsen. We would call for him to eat, go outside, or to give him a treat and sometimes he would come, while other times he would not. Sometimes he would walk into walls without knowing exactly where he was going, but he always seemed happy!

I still do not know to this day how he could catch treats so well with his eyesight being as poor as it was. His catching percentage was a solid 68% over the course of his life.

My parents and siblings would take the dogs on long walks, sometimes up to 7 miles long. When the other dogs tired, Skip never wavered and would just trot along in his sideways "herding" walk we all got accustomed to.

Recently though, Skip started to wear down. He wasn't able to go on as long of walks, he wouldn't eat as much, and he started to sleep more than usual.

The past few days, Skip has gone downhill at an accelerating pace and there wasn't much that could be done! He held on for as long as possible, but just passed away. Skip had a wonderful life and was spoiled with love and affection from our family for the last 14 years.

Thank you for all the memories little Skippy! I'm gonna miss ya bud!