In Memoriam - Zoie The Wonder Pup

“You've given your heart for a dog to tear.”

–Rudyard Kipling, The Power of The Dog Zoie The Wonder Pup - 9/2007 - 8/2008

We lost our precious, curious, crazy, makeuslaughtilwecried with her antics, Zoie the Wonder Pup around 7:20 a.m. Tuesday morning. She would have been a year old in September.

Zack and Zoie and I walked their Auntie Suzan out to her car, and when I was loading Suzan’s suitcase into her truck, Zoie hopped up in the back of the Suburban. I made her get down, and gave Suzan a hug and told her bye. In that one split second Zoie must have rounded the truck, immediately run into the street before I could stop her and was hit by a pickup. She died almost instantly.

Unbeknownst to me, a man was walking his dog down the opposite side of the street. I always look for walkers and runners before I let the dogs out, but somehow, I missed this man and his gentle dog. (I hope y’all are okay.) The little Zoie-monga didn’t miss a thing, however. I never saw Zoie dart under our truck to go say hi to them, but I heard the hit, and heard Suzan scream. It happened that quickly.

And our sweet, sweet Zoie was gone.

To the sweet beautiful young lady driving the truck , I want to say to you…no way, no how, was this your fault. There is no possible way you could have seen Zoie. Thank you so much for stopping, and caring. Please feel free to contact me – I’d love to talk to you and make sure you’re okay. I need to let you know some things, so here are some of them:

We always laughed at Zoie, her curiosity, her fearlessness. She could have run for mayor, she was such a political machine. In reality, though, this was also our only fear concerning Zoie – that she was so curious, she would see something and dart. Dart away from obedience, dart into the path of something, and be injured or killed. Zoie was a loving dog who was eager to please, in every area but this one. And in this one area, she was so hard headed. Just last Friday, she was disciplined for running across the street after a squirrel. Vehicles were nothing more to her than transportation to go hunting. Much as we tried, she never got it into her head that vehicles were dangerous things. I was in the wrong this morning, to have had Zoie off leash, and it cost us her life.

Zoie had a great, though short, life. Upon entering our lives, she calculatingly captivated (within one week!) her playmate and big brother, Zack the Wonder Dog, whom she loved and tortured endlessly – and he always calmly and lovingly endured her biting and wrestling (MLH always said Zack was looking towards the future.) Zoie had finished her (puppy) hunter training with flying colors at eight months of age, and had a great nose and a hard point. We had great expectations of fun hunting with her this season. Zoie had just experienced her first De-Snaking Clinic this last Saturday, where we saw her curiosity in full swing, much to our dismay. She was a loved member of our family, and quickly snagged the hearts of our friends.

Just this morning about 4 a.m., Zoie and Zack snuck up into our bed, burrowed under the comforter and slept until 6 a.m. with us. And the entire time I made smoothies and visited with their Auntie Suzan this morning, Zoie and Zack wrestled and played at our feet. Zoie brought the tennis ball to me, and I threw it for her. At one point, she laid down at my feet under the table, and I thought, “Oh, you thing, I remember when you were a baby, and you’d lay down like that, next to Zack, and for that first week, he would ignore you and even growl.” Here’s a look back over the past year.

Week One:Week Two: May 31, 2008

She was a lover-girl kind of dog that we initially purchased as a companion for Zack. The wee thing snuck into our hearts when we weren’t even looking. We will miss you greatly, Little Miss Zoie the Wonder Pup.

Hunt ‘em up, girlfriend. Hunt ‘em up.