Aleaha's Blog: Ode to Spiffy

We had to say good-bye to our doggie, Spiffy. He was getting up there in age, and we know that's especially hard on the big dogs. He was considered a cross between a Border Collie and a Shetland Pony (so you can imagine the personality!), and he was over 100 pounds. He had a bout of something very bad last fall, and he barely pulled through it. Over the winter and early spring, he seemed OK, but he was definitely slowing down. Age will do that, of course - to all of us. His illness came back suddenly. We had to tearfully say good-bye. He bravely went to the light, and he know he's romping now with all our other beloved pets whom we have lost.

Let's think back, via pictures, on life with Spiffy.

As soon as we had moved into the Philomath house and could build a good place for a dog, Mommy & Daddy adopted Spiffy from one of the local humane societies. It was May 2004.

Sidenote: We had many animals join us that year -- Zinky, the goats, and the llama were adopted then. And in 2005 we got Jake. It's likely that we will face many more good-byes in the near term, as all of these critters age and their time with us draws to a close.

His name at the shelter was "Phillip," which we thought was a silly name for a dog. We named him Spiffy, because he looked like he was dressed up in a spiffy tuxedo, ready to go someplace special. His official family name was "Spiffy James Miller," with the middle name a reference to both of his grandfathers, whose first names are also James.

He was estimated to be between 9 and 12 months old when we got him, and there was no information about him or his background. In these beginning days, his ears both folded over. Not long thereafter, however, he developed a very special trait of "one ear up and one ear down."

He quickly learned to give gentle kisses, and he would even take a treat from my mouth.

He also loved to shake hands.

Sunning himself was great fun.

We soon realized that Spiffy had very selective hearing. He did not like to come when called. If there was something more interesting to him out wherever he was headed, there was no way to get his attention and bring him back. One track mind! We tried training him with various methods, and he just wouldn't have it. We even tried having him bond more closely to us by staying in the house, but he was very clearly an outside dog -- happy outside, and a bumbling doofus in the house. We knew we wanted to keep him, but that meant keeping him on a leash or in a pen at all times. So we had to adjust to that style.

He was famous for sticking his head in the cat door when interesting things were happening in the garage.

We had fun with him on a few trips to the beach.

He was very active (and so were we - back then).

Loved to dig-dig-dig, and that was about the only place he was allowed to do this!

He was very hardy and loved to play in the snow.

He had a reputation for bowling over kids. It took a long time to trust him with the girls. We gave him some chances to earn more privileges, and eventually he was allowed to be off-leash when we would make our visits to EO.

Of course, for Aleaha to take Spiffy for a walk was really more like him taking her for a drag.

Eventually, they became pretty good walking buddies.

When we moved to the new house, we didn't have a good place for Spiffy. For a short time, he had to bunk in the barn with the big animals.

Arby had a special relationship with Spiffy -- he loved the idea of a real, live plaything.

Although Spiffy did love to run and play, he wasn't much interested in being Arby's plaything in the muddy barn paddock.

Running in the snow, though, was a whole other thing!

Cuz that was truly fun!!

He was very tolerant of his lifestyle. One winter the snow was pretty deep. He would stay outside during the day, but at night he would stay in the barn. That was great, because he would protect the hay from mice. And he loved having a job like that!

Frolicking outside was definitely a favorite activity. We had lots of walks together, and lots of romps with the animals.

Whenever possible, he was out and about....

and rolling...

and burning off his energy.

Patrolling the pasture.

Going to give Arby a hard time.

His most important job was at times like this. He's hard to spot, but way out in front of us, as we rode along, he was the "the flusher". His job was to flush out birds and rabbits and even deer, so that as we went by, the horses would not be surprised.