In Memory of Tippy

One of my best friends died this week. He's been my constant companion for six years. He was charming, amusing and had good manners at parties. He always remembered my friends and definitely had some favorites ( that's you Fred and Max). He absolutely loved to go with me for long or short rides in the car or the truck, we had to spell r.i.d.e. if we were planning a Sunday drive so he wouldn't get too excited and make us crazy. He was my guardian and fierce protector at the farm. I always felt safe if I went to the cabin alone because he was there with me, he was particularly alert when we were there and would sense and intruder (often deer) before I ever knew they were close.


My house has been so sad and quiet the last two days I can hardly stand it. I keep looking for him, almost calling him to the kitchen for trimmings from a roast beef...oh how that boy loved roast beef! He didn't have a naughty bone in his body. I can count his "accidents" on one hand and that was really our fault for not taking him outside at the appropriate times. He never put a mark on any of my furniture, never chewed on a single thing. He never took anything off of my counter tops...I could leave ten pounds of beef out to thaw and he wouldn't think of touching it. He sat by my side all day if I worked in the yard, always placing himself between me and the direction from which someone might approach....ever the protector. He never dug a hole in my flower beds although one time I encouraged him to dig for a mole...he thought that was really fun. I spoiled him, treated him like a king....but he deserved it...he treated us with respect and adoration.


Wednesday evening I took him out for his evening break, he was dawdling so I came back to the house. Less than five minutes passed, I called him a few times but unknown to me he had chased a mink into the road and got hit by a vehicle and was killed instantly. The mink died too. That was the second time in the six years he lived here that he went out into the road, the first time he went on the road he got a severe scolding. I so wish I could scold him again.