1997 
Today is the last day that our dear friend and family member, our dog Shelby, will be with us. We finally have no choice but to put her down. We will miss her dearly, especially the kids. After all, she helped raise most of them.
We got Shelby twelve years ago – she was found by a coworker wandering the street, and showed up at her doorstep. She knew I was looking for a puppy and brought her to work (very risky since we worked at an accounting firm in a thirty-five story downtown office building). But she survivied in the box, and made it home.
I had told my husband that my coworker said she’d been sitting in her shoe – he was happy about that since he wanted a small dog. Well, what my friend must have meant by that was Shelby’s head must have been resting in her shoe. There was no way that body would’ve fit in a shoe, probably not even in a fireman’s boot.
Shelby is definitely a bird dog of some sort – she loves to hunt and point at her prey, and has been known to snag a bird or two right out of the air if they swoop in too low. She was never able to help herself when it came to the kids’ gerbils either – we decided not to get any more of those. And raccoons beware – she loved to try to catch them (although I think she lost the last couple of battles she had with them.)
Shelby was definitely a kids’ dog, and it’s a good thing. She loved to play, and wrestle, and be hugged. She was also a wonderful “mother” to our Chihuahua, Mia (although she really didn’t have much choice in the matter – Mia latched on to her like a needy kid).
2009
Shelby defended our home and defended our family, and has been a loyal friend and devoted family member. We will greatly miss her. And I think my younger kids put it best in the words they wrote last night:
