Dewey

While we were in Hot Springs, my Memmie called and said that they wanted to come up and see us. My cousin Hannah was at their house and wanted to come up to visit. They decided to come up on Monday and spend the night. When we got home from Hot Springs, I straightened up the house and got things ready for visitors. Memmie, Poppie and Hannah got to our house on Monday afternoon and we enjoyed visiting with them on Monday night and Tuesday morning. We went out to dinner at Mimi's Cafe on Monday night and then came home to play with Caleb and visit. While we were talking, I casually suggested that Hannah could take Dewey home with her. I was half-kidding. The more we thought about it, though - it made complete sense. Hannah has always had pets. The Hatch family has had dogs (and other various animals) all her life. Now, she is moving back to Kentucky to get married. She has a condo with a courtyard and has all the time in the world to pay attention to a neurotic 8-year-old beagle. After I suggested it, we talked about it a little more and she called her fiance to get his opinion. Chris was apparently in agreement with it. I told her to think about it and let me know. On Tuesday morning, she agreed to take him, so I packed up all of his stuff, gave her the name of his vet's office and said goodbye to Dewey.

Rudy and I got Dewey when he was 6 weeks old. He was absolutely adorable. He had that one blue eye and one brown eye and the ear that (according to Rudy's Mamaw) had been dipped in Purex. He was the center of our attention for a long time. He was Rudy's dad's best friend (we even put a picture of him in Jess' casket when he died). Dewey became more human than canine and then as he got older, he got more and more neurotic. We have sometimes laughed that he became more feline than canine. Dewey was a lap dog, terrified of thunderstorms and fireworks. He was the dog that just couldn't help but lick you - even when he knew he wasn't supposed to. When we moved to St. Louis, we got Lucy as a companion for Dewey. Dewey outlasted her and all of her maladies. When Caleb came along, Dewey naturally took a backseat. As Caleb has gotten older and more mobile, Dewey has become less patient with him. He's never been aggressive with him, but was obviously irritated by his mere presence. As our lifestyle changed, we had less time for Dewey and it was costing us more to board him every time we traveled. We were finding that we had to rearrange our plans to come home and let him out more and more often. And with the purchase of our new house came a higher level of frustration for me about cleaning up his hair and making sure that the house didn't smell like a dog lived here.

We love Dewey, but it was time for him to find a new home where he has the attention that he needs. He will forever have a big place in our hearts. We wish him (and Hannah) well in Kentucky...