Goodbye, Pepper!

Pepper, 1996-2009

The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog.
–Samuel Coleridge, Table-Talk

It is a sobering thought that cats and dogs are more loyal, trustworthy, and reliable than human beings.
–Desmond Morris, Dogwatching

It’s because they’re dogs, because they’re what we can’t be, as hard as we try, that we cherish their virtues. It’s why we idealize and extol their unfailing loyalty, patience, nobility, courage, selflessness, and devotion—so exemplary in them, so elusive in ourselves. Want perfect love? Try heaven. The closest thing to it you’ll find on earth is a dog.
–Lionel Fisher, Celebrating Time Alone:
Stories of Splendid Solitude

… but death was sweet, death was gentle, death was kind; death healed the bruised spirit and the broken heart, and gave them rest and forgetfulness; death was man’s best friend; when man could endure life no longer, death came and set him free.
–Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth

Pepper was my sister Kristen and her husband Bryan’s dog. Bryan adopted her from a Pennsylvania animal shelter in late 1996, when she was still technically a puppy, and met Kristen not long after. I met Pepper for the first time in early 1997 and was instantly smitten. It’s a good example of how deeply animals can touch us even when they’re not our pets. She was never my dog—only my niece (as I like to call her)—but I loved her as though she were my own dog. I just adored her through and through.

Her health began failing in recent months; the changes in her between late April (the second to last time I saw her) and May 25th (the last time I saw her) were shocking. She lost a lot of weight and muscle mass and was so much more subdued than I’d ever seen her. She was euthanized yesterday, May 27, 2009, after a long, happy, well-lived life.

I hope doggy heaven is treating you wonderfully, Pepperoni. You deserve an eternity of tennis balls, squeaky hedgehog toys, people food, and love!

Here are some photos I grabbed from my collection. I still need to snag some shots of Pepper with Bryan, Kristen, their other dog Mia, and their cat Harley.

Pepper with my niece Olivia and me, April 2009.

Christmas 2002.

Christmas 2000.

Christmas 1998.

Thanksgiving 1999 (she is wearing my Halloween tiara).

Fetching a tennis ball at a park near my apartment
in Beltsville, summer 2000.

Hiking in Great Falls, summer 1998.

Olivia and Pepper, spring 2008.

Rockin’ the cool shades, spring 1999.

Pepper, Benny (on my lap), and me, spring 1997.

Pepper with Kristen’s cat Gabby, ca. 1997.

Pepper and Olivia, October 2007.

Pepper and me at the Lincoln Memorial,
late winter 1998.

At Delaware Beaches State Park on my 24th birthday,
June 1998.

Hiking at Seneca Creek State Park, fall 1999.

song heard most recently before posting:
Sorrow—Klaus Badelt & Lisa Gerrard