|
|
We named him after a search engine...Lycos.com....my
hubby wanted to call him "Jupiter" but I didn't like the name.
At the time when we brought him home,
Lycos.com was in the middle of their "Lycos, go get it!"
marketing campaign. Radio, TV everywhere...it would
Lycos, go get it and the black pup would bark and dash off to
fetch it. It fit our boy perfectly....especially if there
was a "fetch", "cow" or "snake" involved (some of his favorite toys).
He sure was a daddy's boy, like most of the Tan Menagerie
is, but he always could be counted on for
"mommy kisses"....when I went down to his level and
asked "Lycos, mommy kiss", he'd give me a sweet
little kiss. And even though it always seemed like
he was always laying with Daddy at night while the
family sat and watched TV, he always seemed to
know when Mommy needed Lycos love and he would
come over to my chair and sleep at my feet. And
talk about a scaredy, submissive dog...which was
kind of our fault as we tried to introduce him to a
friend's much bigger dog when he was a pup and that
traumatized him for the rest of his life. But even so,
if the wrong people came to the door, he would let
them know that he was willing to defend his house
and his Mom and Dad.
He loved it when it was camping time or better yet, hotel
time...a chance to sleep with mom or dad. And we finally
taught him that yes, he could swim and swim he
would, especially if there was a stick involved. Of
course, this dog would avoid laying on the dirty
ground when we went camping...camping chairs that
were usually meant for us worked much better for him.
The day we lost him was so very unexpected...so out of the
blue. When the doctor said cancer, I felt as if I had
been punched in the gut. And when he said that we
could drain the fluid around his heart sac but it would
only give us two more days with our boy, as much
as I knew it was the right thing, signing the papers
to end his life was so very heartwrenching for
me. I knew it was going to be hard to be with him at
the end (I'm tearing up now remembering this) but I
didn't want him to go alone to the bridge. I wanted him
to hear my voice and remember the love that both
Mommy and Daddy had for the black and white
furball that so enriched our life for the last 7 years.
And within days, he must have sensed how hard it was to
lose him because he sent me several "signs"... first,
as I was driving home from an afternoon
appointment, in the sky, there was one of the biggest
rainbows I've ever seen in my life...I was able to
see both ends of it. I cried and cried, how I got home
then, I have no idea. Then, I noticed one of my
kitties intently staring out the window in my
livingroom at the rosebush and a small maple tree where we
planned to put Lycos under when we got him home.
When I got closer to the window, I noticed that a
small little bird was flitting from branch to branch on
the rosebush and literally tapping on the window.
That little bird hung around for about an hour
tormenting one kitty. When Lycos was around, he
constantly was chasing my kitties. I tried to train that out of
him but I was working against genetics...maybe he
figured if he could no longer chase them, he could ask
God to send a little bird down to torture them. That little
bird has showed up every day for a couple of days and
ended up torturing 3 of my 4 kitties. On the one week
anniversary, I was sending an online sympathy card to one
of my neigbors who also lost their family cat recently.
I was trying to hit the send button and it wasn't
working. Usually, that means you have a popup
window somewhere. And sure enough, when I
moved the windows around on my Mac to look, there
was a popup window...it was for the Lycos.com
search engine and it was using the "Go Get
It" marketing jingle. They haven't used that jingle in over
7 years. And on the day that we got our boy back,
I happened to notice one lone pink rosebud on
the rosebushes outside my window. All of our
rosebushes are in some serious need of pruning, we've had
lots of rain so it was unexpected to see a rose on
them. I've cut that rose and put in my freezer...it's
Lycos's rose now. I looked up the
significance of rose colors on the web and this is what I
found for single pink roses:
Appreciation, "Thank you", Grace, Perfect Happiness,
Admiration, Gentleness, Please Believe Me and Gratitude.
I took comfort in these signs, coincidences, whatever they
were, and now believe that my boy is well on the
other side of the Rainbow Bridge, waiting patiently
for his human parents, his canine sister and
his feline siblings.
When it came time to bring a new furbaby into our home, I
take comfort in the thought that Lycos had a "paw" in
it. I think that if he had lived and we ended up with
Rosalynn too, he would have loved her. Not that
he'd be able to keep up with her though.
Here is the short tribute to my boy:
To our dearest one, Lycos.com....always in our hearts,
always missed.
02/26/99 - 04/03/06
