rhodyram

Shady Lady passed away on Wednesday night. Her final battle, a fast growing cancerous tumor stemming from inside one of her knees…

I share this news with everyone, especially after being reminded over the last few days how much she meant to so many of you. I’ve gotten a crazy amount of phone calls, and e-mails… to comfort me, which I can’t thank you all enough, but also hearing how affected people are themselves, having spent time with Shady Lady over the years.. and everyone knowing how good of a dog, how smart, and how sweet she was.

and well behaved, man… she was an incredible dog… and I see she will be missed by so many.

she was my best friend. In thinking about the relationship, I suppose I was her Dad, and best friend. an 89lb. Rottweiler…. daddies little girl, huh? it’s funny to think about now, but it was sorta true.

Throughout the latter half of her life we had troubles with her legs, she had one of her knees surgically replaced about six years ago, and then the other one a year and a half ago… the breed is known for their hip and knee issues, and we dealt with Shady’s back knees…

she recovered completely from the first knee job and then went several years running around with the other dogs, or chasing squirrels in the park, her absolute favorite pastime.

living all these years in the ground floor apartment with a backyard was the best situation for us.. of course Shady was a big fan of the BBQ, and she enjoyed nothing more than laying under the holly tree…. it was her spot. shaded from the sun, where she watched patiently for the stray cats that used our yard to get to the next…

I took off from work last week to be with her, having a feeling the cancer was spreading… and I’m so glad I did…. we had a really great few days together.. Shady even got to hang out in the yard during breaks in the rain, it was unusually warm out, about 55 one of the days, so she was loving it…

it wasn’t like taking care of a pet with Shady, she was more of a companion, and as she grew old acted more like a mother, or grandmother… it was always so much fun watching her around little kids, she would be so gentle with them. and continuously look up to check that it’s ok, and that she was acting appropriately… the smaller the child the more concerned she would be with her body position… it always amazes me, the instincts that animals have and to see how correct Shady would try to be.

I will miss her tremendously, and her passing will continue to sink in for me… I’ve been trying to focus on all the great times.. even the funny moments - back in the winter of ‘96/’97 living with Mike and Em in Bonnet when I came home one night, a bit drunk, I gave Shady and Taylor some dog food, and lay down with the two puppies in the kitchen, only to pass out and be found by Emily hours later on the floor with my head between two empty bowls…. the last thing I remembered was lying down, hiked up on my elbows in between the two dogs, talking to them while they were eating… by the time Em found me on the floor, the dogs had already been up on the couches sleeping comfortably for a few hours…

when Shady first came home with me from the breeder, we spent a few weeks living in the Sigma Chi house… Shady was a small ball of fur and fun at the time, and nervous at first - she would run into the closet and hide whenever someone new came into the room… ha! so I would go into the closet with her, and wait together for the person to leave. She quickly became a people dog but so funny to think back on some of those moments.. then living in the condos with us that summer, the two dogs would wander up and down the stairs of each of the condos behind Mama Leones, walking freely into people’s places… no one minded, then growing up for a few more years closer to the beach in Narragansett, which she would run on so often with her sister Taylor, the two of them loved each other so much… and got to live together again in Jersey City a few years later, beach dogs gone urban…

Shady Lady definitely became a Jersey City dog, she knew which stray cat to mess with, and quickly learned which ones not to. A veteran of Van Vorst park in downtown JC, we must have spent thousands of hours there… hunting squirrels, and people watching during the day, and a special time that I will miss very much, is our late night walks, especially the ones that I would let her lead the way… we’d just go on and on, stopping on some corners to rest when she needed to, and of course everybody in the neighborhood knew Shady.. and she knew it, you could tell by how proudly she would walk along the Avenue.

there will be plenty more to write about, it’s going to take a little longer to sink in, but I wanted you all to know, and to share with you some good thoughts about her. thank you all for your calls, and e-mail, it has definitely helped.

she had the best life, and I’m really happy that I can say that.