SUPERishDAD Misses Roxie

It’s with a heavy heart I say that my dog Roxie has passed away. We got her way back in 2005. She was one of the sweetest dogs I’ve ever known. She died on October 27th, 2018.

We don’t know what officially caused her to pass away but we think she went quickly and peacefully. The night before she died she ate like normal and nothing was out of the ordinary. However, the next morning Lisa found her in her favorite chair still looking like she was sleeping.

Roxie was 13 years old which is near 91 years old in human years. She lived a long life with us and always brightened our days with her sunny disposition and goofball antics.

So in honor of my fur baby Roxie, I’d like to share some pictures and memories with you.

When we got her, she was just a tiny dog from a pet store in the mall. She was a pound puppy that they had brought in for adoption. Lisa and I instantly fell in love with her and decided to take her home. She was so cute and funny in the store and that never changed for the rest of her life.

When we got Roxie, we thought we were doing a nice thing for my other dog, Jewls. I got Jewls in 2002 so she was fully grown by the time we brought Roxie home. I was working a lot at the time and thought Jewls might like some company. Turns out, Jewls didn’t really want anymore company, but Roxie never seemed to mind. She loved Jewls from the very beginning even though Jewls never paid her much attention. Jewls would try to walk away and Roxie would follow. Jewls would be chewing on something and Roxie would try to play tug-of-war.

When she was little she used to chew on everything. She outgrew it after a year or two, but man oh man did she chew on everything at first.

She went from this…

to this very quickly.

Even when she was very young, she loved digging and never seemed to mind getting dirty. Jewls was the opposite. Once Jewls and I lived in my apartment in Knoxville, Tennessee, I practically had to push her out the door to get her to go outside. Not Roxie though, she loved digging and chasing everything outside.

And while a little dirt on her nose as a pup is cute, it translated much differently when she was older.

If you didn’t already know from previous blogs, Roxie was 1 of 4 dogs we had for many years. (This is a side note, but I love this picture of the 4 dogs. A lot of effort went into making this picture because it was hard to get them to all sit still. Kenney (on the left) looks scared and nervous, Tito (the grey one) looks irritated, Jewls (on the right) looks like, “Can we just get this over with,” but I think Roxie just looks happy and confused.)

Roxie loved car rides and going to the park to explore.

Oddly enough though, Roxie didn’t like being hot at all.

One of my favorite memories of her was the time she just quit walking on a trail. Lisa and I don’t have a sense of direction at all. If GPS didn’t exist I assume we would have never left Tennessee. With that said, we loved taking Roxie to the White Water Center in Charlotte. It was a very pet friendly place and it had miles of hiking trails. One day, Lisa and I decided to take Roxie and Jewls on a “little” hike. Of course we got turned around on the trail and of course our “little” hike turned into a big hike. We walked and walked and walked trying to find our way back to the main part of the White Water Center. Then all of the sudden Roxie was over it. The four of us were in mid step when Roxie just laid down in the middle of the Trail. There was no debate, no warning, she just laid down like, “I’m done, you all figure this nonsense out and get back to me.” We had plenty of water with us so we let the dogs drink and sit for about 20 minutes. Roxie never moved from her spot during that time. We eventually got everyone moving again and found our way back to our car. But Roxie sure did make a statement that day.

Since I’m on the subject of Roxie’s heat intolerance. Another funny memory I have is how she would always lay beside the AC unit outside because the fan created a slight breeze and it was mostly shaded. It used to drive me crazy. She would shed like crazy and all that hair would go into the AC unit which is horrible for the life of the unit. So I would put stuff out to block her from going back there and she would find ways around it.

One more funny part of Roxie vs the Heat is that she would always lay on the vents in the summer time at our first house in Tennessee. We didn’t live in that first house very long before we moved to Charlotte. Unfortunately for her, every house we’ve had since then all had vents in the ceiling. However, in that first house, every time Roxie would come in from outside, she’d immediately lay down on a vent to cool off. It would make the whole living room hotter because it had no air flow, but at least Roxie was happy.

Alright, let’s move on from stories of heat intolerance. Roxie was the only dog that ever played with our dog, Tito. Tito has always been… well, special. He doesn’t like other dogs and can be territorial. For whatever reason, Tito never got mad at Roxie. If Jewls or Kenney had tried to play with Tito, there’s no way he would have played, but Roxie was different for him. I’m so glad he had her because they always kept each other company. I think Roxie was just sweet enough that he never saw her as a threat so he was always at ease around her.

When she was older, her hips were sore and it was difficult for her to go up and down the stairs. In her heyday, she was a very strong dog. If she saw a squirrel when walking on the leash, a dog led ski trip was in store unless I was holding onto her leash very tightly.

When we lived at the house with the 4 foot high chain link fence she was difficult to keep contained. As I stated earlier, Roxie loved to dig. She could dig underneath that fence in 3 seconds flat. I remember buying a bunch of stakes to drive into the ground to keep her in the fence. At some point she decided it would just be easier to jump over.
One day I was looking out the window and noticed 3 young boys getting ready to walk by our fence. Roxie loved people and she came running over to meet them. I was watching the kids to make sure they didn’t harass her, but the boys were friendly and held their hands out for Roxie to sniff them. Then they started petting her through the fence. Roxie decided she might as well hop the fence and hang out with her new friends. I wish so badly that I would have recorded their reaction. They looked like they had been shot. They all jumped and one boy tried to shield himself with his bike. All the while Roxie was just as happy as could be to see them. Once the kids saw she was happy, they were fine, but I think they thought they messed up big time for a moment.

Another thing Roxie used to do back in the time before cellular telephones did perfect 1080p video, she would move her dog house all over the yard. We kept noticing that sometimes we would look out and the dog house would be moved from one side of the house to the other. We didn’t know what was going on. Then, one day, we looked outside and saw Roxie using her head to root the dog house where she wanted it to sit. I’m still shocked she could do it because it was a pretty good sized dog house. But Roxie would get fixated on something and that’s all she would think about. Oh to be inside Roxie’s head when she had an idea.

This is the last story I’ll share with you. When we moved to Charlotte, we rented a house. We were both going to college and working. I worked at a Rite Aid part time. When we were both gone, we left all 4 dogs in the house. We always kept Tito in a crate because if you left him out he would get bored and chew on something he wasn’t supposed to. Roxie, Kenney and Jewls all ran around in the house. One day I’m at work and I hear that I have a call on the phone at work. I figure it’s Lisa and that panics me a little because she never calls at work. I pick up the phone but it’s not Lisa, it’s my neighbor. My neighbor says my dogs are out. I’m like, “No, it must be someone else’s dog because mine are put up.” Then she’s like, “I’m pretty sure it’s your dog.” However, I tell her, “my dogs are inside the house.” Then she tells me that the dog’s collar says Roxie. So I’m like, “Oh no, someone must have broken in and let them out!” The neighbor looks but the door is fine and still locked. So I’m like, “Please take Roxie (and Kenney) to the backyard in the fence.” I fly home to see what happened. Best I can figure out, Roxie must have seen a squirrel and busted through the window. The house had old windows that were single pane but still, my goofy dog broke out a window chasing some animal. She must have gone through first and then Kenney decided to follow her and Jewls was like, “See you idiots later” because she never left the house. I’m just glad that Tito didn’t get out because he’s super hard to catch and he thinks you’re playing with him so he runs around like a greased pig. Only Roxie would bust a window chasing a squirrel.

Anyway, all this to say, Roxie was a great dog who was a big part of our lives. She will be missed every day. Every time I feed the other two dogs or let the dogs out or get ready to go to bed without hearing her nails clicking on the floor, I am aware of her absence and wish she was still here. But when I think back to all these goofy, funny moments, it makes me so happy. I’m lucky to have had such a sweet dog that didn’t have a mean bone in her body.

I know this blog isn’t a parenting blog in the truest sense, but I was a SUPERishDOGDAD before I became SUPERishDAD. With that said, Roxie was great with Zoey. Toddlers can be really stressful to dogs due to their energy and lack of boundaries. Even though Roxie was getting older, she was always very zen with Zoey. She stayed chill from the time she was born until the day she passed away.