I must admit that I am pretty sad that I won’t see Trixie anymore. I have been hoping that she would be around one last time before heading up in a few weeks to Lumberjack Fest. I know that’s selfish of me…I am happy to see that she did not suffer before moving onto Doggie Heaven.
It hit me 3 years ago that Trixie won’t be around forever so I remember taking the photo above because I thought I should have a few pictures of Trixie and me. I remember being frustrated because Trixie wasn’t the most agreeable dog so every time I would sit and try and have her look at the camera with me she would either run off to sniff at something or tackle me with her slimy nose. Ha ha! I had a good laugh that day.
Trixie was half husky, half Alaskan malamute, I believe. A true Northern dog who would stay out in the cold all day long (unless it was 40 below and then she would curl up and hide her face away from Dad when he woke up in the morning. This was her way of saying “Are you crazy? I’m not going out there!!!) and pull ME for a walk (not the other way around!).
Trixie was a great dog but man, did she have a nomadic streak to her. She could never go off her chain/leash or else she would take off! I remember many times having to take a pack of weiners with me to chase after her and lure her back to the house. I remember this one time where she got as far as the Labries and turned around. I thought she was being nice to me and would come back. With a weiner in my hand I approached…slowly, slowly, more slowly, oh, not too fast! Then, I *swear* Trixie laughed at me with some wild eyes and took off. Damn you, you dirty dog! Ha ha ha…man, it was good times chasing after her. Even if we couldn’t find her, we would come home and awhile later she would literally come home with her tail between her legs and head straight for the doghouse. I think secretly everyone in the family loved when she roamed the wild which was Kapuskasing but as authoritative figures, Mom and Dad always made up excuses like “Oh, what if she got into someone’s trash? That’s not good!” I would like to think that she always found some cool dogs to hang out with for awhile, sniffed some butt, ran around and then at the end of the adventure, well it’s time to go home to the coolest family in the world!
I must admit that I haven’t lived in Kap for about 9 years now so Trixie hasn’t been a constant factor in my life so I haven’t seen her in the later years of life…one year she grew this lump and Dad wanted me to touch it. Ewww…that thing was gross! I have no idea what this thing was but she lived with it for the past few years.
Memories are flooding back now of every little thing that she would do. Bark to get in, then bark to get out in the span of 30 seconds. Everyone always yelled at the dog for this but I thought it was hilarious. I wonder if it was her secret way of playing a game with us. She was a clever dog.
The odd thing about Trixie is that she never once came down into the basement. Perhaps she was scared of the stairs. I had always wanted to bring her down to the basement and I remember saying this to Mom and Dad when I was up last Christmas. I wanted her to have a sneak peek into where we went to watch television or to get our laundry. I remember when she first came home and we realized that we would have to set up her blanket (a He-Man and the Masters of the Universe blanket nontheless) up in the kitchen. Trixie was always fond of strange foods…such as carrots. You always had to give her the carrot after dinner. She would even wait by the fridge for it. I’m sure I’ll have all sorts of memories flooding back throughout the next week….
Here’s to the greatest dog anyone could ever know. I was scared of dogs before I met Trixie and she made me love her, and the rest of the canine species (except for the small yappy ones. What a waste of a dog. Get a dog that you can throw around a little and put on some ski-doo mitts and have her tear into them. That didn’t turn out to be a good thing when we DIDN’T want to play with her!). I will miss Trixie and the way my room smelled like old, wet dog when I returned the first time from college. I let her sleep in the room though that one night but she decided to leave the next night because she was cool like that. I suppose she figured if she could have my room for four months, then she can give it up for a week or two.
We’ll miss you Trixie. I hope you’re up there eating all the weiners and carrots that your heart desires.