This weekend we had to say goodbye to Betty. She came to us from NorCal GSP Rescue. We named her Black Betty after the song by Ram Jam because she was the recessive black color, not the typical copper brown. She has the softest ears like a seal pup. Our first meeting she stood straight up on her hind legs and looked me in the eyes and smelled my breath but never touched me. She was a beauty and we took her home not knowing how much she would become a part of our story.
We came to understand why the rescue insisted someone come out to inspect our yard and then proceeded to kick every inch of our fence to make sure it was sound. She quickly lived up to her name. Within 30 minutes of leaving for work the first day, I got a call that she had jumped our 6-foot fence and was sitting in the neighbor’s truck ready to go for a ride. Another time she jumped from my sister’s car window while parked at a gas station so she could chase the light rail train and proceeded to lead a slow-speed chase while the San Jose Police Department tried to help retrieve her. The three police cars stopped when she ran down a driveway . . . her own. She watched over one, then two and finally three kids we brought home from the hospital and loved the transition to solid foods more than they did. She put up with ear pulls, paw holds, and attempts to ride her gracefully with only ever a little warning bark to tell them to cut it out. She was a counter cruising, couch sleeping, escape artist we loved with all our hearts.
We will miss her soft ears and her brushing against our legs as she walks by. We will miss her cleaning up all the food we didn’t realize we dropped. We will miss hearing her get on the couch at 10 pm after the lights go out and getting off the couch at 6 am when our alarms go off. We will miss her love of squirrels, birds, and trains. She stopped running long ago but seeing her best a greyhound will still bring happy memories. I hope she is chasing those two chickens she caught before we could stop her in a heaven full of trains squirrels and couches.
-The Laine Family
