A few short months ago, I came to you having written a TOESR memorial post for one of my own dogs, Pickles. Sadly, I've now returned to post yet another such memorial for my Odie. Max, as he was known when I began fostering him as a year old pup, came to TOESR as the result of a family who'd made a big mistake in underestimating the exuberance an OES pup can generate. And as with Pickles nee Pixie, the name Max simply wasn't a good fit & he quickly became an Odie. My intent was never to adopt him, in fact, quite the opposite since he immediately destroyed a brand new pair of boots I'd never gotten to wear, decided that 'night time was the right time' to launch stealthy attacks on both my resident dogs, Dakota & Smoke & came up with all manner of puppy antics I'd clearly forgotten about over the years. At the time, Dakota, blind & soon to turn 15yrs old, was fading. Odie was fascinated by the elder sheepdog & would run up to him, calmly lie down in front of him, lick his eyes & then rest his head on Dakota's paws. Remembering that he had puppy things to do however, he was off & gone soon after, but seeing his connection with a dog I loved & knew was getting ready to leave me soon, gave me pause. In that moment, Odie became mine in my heart. And so he stayed. Having noticed several 'non' sheepdog flags in the next year or so, I had Odie's DNA tested. As I thought, he tested as 50% equally, OES & Samoyed, which explained a lot. He did shed. Sheepdogs don't. He was stubborn to a fault, more than any other sheepdog I'd had & could cop a snarky attitude at the drop of a hat. He also had that incredible smile that Samoyeds are well known to have. All part of being an Odie! Through the years, the antics of Odie were well known & he became an icon of sorts in some sheepdog circles. His learned skill to turn on my coffeemaker & his knowledge of just how to jump up & hit the button on my refrigerator's icemaker, releasing ice cubes to share with the other dogs, were epic. Odie was instrumental in overseeing quite a number of other fosters who came & went through the years. If you were approved to stay by matriarch, Smoke, you also had to get Odie's nod. He was a third of the trio that became known as 'the daring dogs of Deverow' & the neighbors actually enjoyed their three part harmony & were even able to identify each dog's howled part. Odie loved water to the point that to even so much as touch the hose, he had to be put on 'time out'. He destroyed numerous baby pools through the years & was the slayer of any number of soccer balls. Several years ago, Odie was diagnosed with degenerative myelopathy, a condition I had not experienced with any of my dogs. The spinal destruction wasn't obvious at first & somewhat easy to ignore. He also began to lose his sight. Time passed, mostly good & Odie continued to go from day to day without much trouble. Toward the end of Odie's life, his trio of buddies had turned into a duo, much like it had years before when Smoke passed away & Pickles had joined us. He & Scoobie became joined at the hip, never one without the other. Seeing a beloved dog stubbornly try to maintain his normal way of life & still always wanting to be there for us was hard to watch. With no cure for Odie's disease, with his back legs close to being gone & total paralysis the end result, as well as being completely blind, I spent many an hour asking for guidance as well as caregiving. We became even closer because of that, I know. It's always been my choice if given an option, to err on the side of being too early rather than too late. So a date was set & the countdown began. To the end, Odie was a loyal, proud & stubborn dog. He refused to give up & he didn't want to leave us on that beautiful, blue sky morning. But outside, in his familiar surroundings with those who loved him by his side, he peacefully left us. I like to think that Odie had 14 years of a life well lived but it still hurts to think of a life without him in it, because, for everyone who knew him, knows there will never be another Odie. Rest well my Odie.