Our Sweet Girl, Kiwi

One of my favorite stories about Kiwi is the one I heard right after we first got her.   Blaine brought her home as a “surprise” companion for Bella, and en route from Mississippi back to North Carolina with little Kiwi in his lap, he made a statement to his brother, Eric; “Well, I’ll either be a hero or a zero.”

He was a hero.

Our sweet girl, Kiwi, fit right into our family just like a baby duck plunges out of its nest,  into the water, and then takes off swimming after the mother and father.  She was like that, and we knew she’d always belonged to us, and we belonged to her.  Wherever we went, she had to be with us from the very beginning.  We tried to block her in the kitchen once, just like we had done Bella (during potty training days).  Uh uh.  No way.  She was having none of that.  If we thought we were going to deter this little one from following her pack, we simply didn’t know her determination.   That barricade lasted…, oh, I don’t know.  Five minutes?  She came bounding into the living room almost as if to say “Ta da!  Now try to keep me away, just try!”  You could see that bright intelligence, that look that said she knew she’d outsmarted those two humans she had as parents.

Then there was the co-worker who asked me one day, “How is the new puppy working out?”   All I could do was look at her and say,  “Good Lord, she’s such a dog!”

She barked.   At anything and nothing.  She chewed furniture (antique ball and claw feet were tasty I guess, as well as certain areas around our fireplace columns)  I had stock in that bitter apple goo you smear on things just so they won’t chew through your wood furniture like a beaver would a tree.  I believe she liked the taste of it too.   But, she liked the taste of cat poop as well, so, enough said there.

She jumped up and down for her food, she terrorized anyone who came near our fence…much to their amusement…and, of course to adequately warn them,  we’d always yell out “cover your ankles!”

She was our hunter.  Sometimes it got her in trouble.  Like the time we were in Mississippi and she wouldn’t come when I called.   We were at my father in law’s hangar in an area of his property called “the bottom.”  I thought coyotes had her, or that she’d tried to follow someone up the hill, and then who knows where she would have gone.  We yelled and yelled.  Where was she?  After almost an hour, I suppose the desperation in my voice made her come out of hiding.  And where from?  All this time…IN the hangar.  Behind some implements.   Having scented something, she wasn’t about to budge.  It was probably a mouse – maybe a snake!  Fun!   She was going to get it!  When I finally showed up with her in my arms, Blaine was just coming back from the airport.  He had seen his Dad take off in his plane thirty  minutes earlier, and the plan was to meet him back at the hangar.  He was on his way down to it and saw me carrying her up the hill.  I was crying.  His face went white, but with his usual calm,  he cautiously asked me, “Uh, what’s wrong?”  I raised my arms and wailed, “Kiiiiwiiii,”   explaining how she’d been “missing” for almost an hour.   He smiled and said, “Nah, she was just hunting!”

THE HUNTER

She loved water from the hose.  We can’t figure this one out.  She was a Yorkie for Pete’s sake – not a lab or some other water loving type dog.  Kiwi’s perfect day of fun was when we washed the cars.  She loved chasing the spray, so much we had to exercise caution playing with her like that because she would be so enthusiastic, she would hurt herself.
GUARDING THE HOSE (just in case)

I could go on and on about our Kiwi stories.

Like Bella, our sweet girl lost her battle to kidney failure…, before it barely began.  The loss is overwhelming.  I can not express adequately at this moment how much we will miss our faithful little watch dog, our loving and trusting sweet girl.

She will always be with us…

R.I.P

FOREVER LOVED

OUR SWEET KIWI

April 20, 2001 – August 23, 2012

They are…together again