Hershey

It’s funny how the things you tend to complain about, are the very same things you cannot bear to let go once you lose something you love so much.

Our sweet dog Hershey had to be put to sleep last weekend and Pat and I are still reeling. She was our best girl, our constant companion and our truest friend. And now, sadly she is gone. We know she is happy and healthy running in Heaven, but we on Earth still miss her very much.

While she was alive, we were in a constant battle of trying to eliminate the dog hair and dog smell from our home and now we find comfort in both. When we come home after work, we breathe in deeply the leftover smell of our Hershey. And there, on my bathroom floor, pieces of her hair that shed everywhere, that I simply can’t bear to clean up yet. Those small pieces we now cling to tightly as if it will somehow bring her back to us.

Hershey had one of the funniest personalities I have ever known in a dog. She was smart and witty. Clever and silly. And while she may not have been the best trained dog as she jumped on anyone who entered our home, she was just so joyous and eager to greet her new guests.

She had a fascination with socks and would literally try to steal them off your feet while you were putting them on. Most times while I would sit on the couch, folding my giant piles of laundry, she would stealthy try to sneak up and delicately snatch a set of folded socks. She would move so quietly and gracefully so as not to alert anyone that there was one less set of socks in my folded pile. Of course I usually did catch her doing such acts, but was often times too amused to do anything about it but laugh as she curled up around her new loot and wagged her tail at me with pride. What a stinker she was.

She also never wanted to be thought of as one of the “girls”. She wanted everyone to know she could hang with the boys, one hundred percent. She helped Pat work in the garage on many projects. She chased the four-wheeler all over Pat’s parent’s property. She loved to help Pat shovel the driveway and sidewalks in the winter and then would egg Pat on until he finally appeased her with a snowball fight. She would growl and bark and chomp at the snow in delight.

As most dogs do, Hershey loved to go for walks. It was asking her if she wanted to go for a walk that was our favorite. We would try to nonchalantly get ready for a walk without saying a word to her but she would be on to us, knowing something was getting ready to happen. Then as causal as possible, one of us would ask her, “Hershey, do you want to go for a walk?” And she would freeze whatever she was doing and whip her head around to look at you and just stare in complete silence as if to say, “You better not be joking about this”. So we would ask her again, “Hersh, wanna go for a walk?” and then she would let loose. She jumped and snorted and twisted her body around in these jumping circles in order to prove her real desire to truly go for a walk.

Death proves to you that life continues to go on. We still get up each morning and shower and go to work. We come home to our very empty house and eat dinner and work on various projects. We shake our heads in amazement that everything can be exactly the same, and yet so entirely and utterly different.

We miss our sweet Hershey and her playfulness, her curiosity, and her heart that was so full of love for us.

We opted to get Hershey cremated as we are not sure we will always be in our current home. What a bizarre thing to look for the perfect urn for your loved one. Even more bizarre since we had never even discussed anything like this before. We just thought we had another five to six years with her. We finally chose, for the time being, a simple wooden box that will contain her remains. We wanted her name engraved on the top. No birth date and certainly no death date. Because to us, Hershey is always alive. She is alive in spirit and she is alive in our hearts. She fills our memories so vibrantly that I can still hear the shake of her ears, her groan as she lay down and her snore as she slept.

Our sweet Hershey will never be forgotten, and will continue to live in our hearts forever. We will love her always.