[Sca-cooks] Death of a Lady

[Philippa Alderton]

As many of you know, the Lady Stubbe von Fuzzybutte,
my closest friend of the last few years, passed away
after a short illness. I'm
posting this to Cooks and SPCA Lists, because it's the
easiest way to let my friends know what has happened,
and why I've been a bit
manic the last couple of weeks. If you've undeservedly
received the sharp end of my tongue, I apologize
(although if you deserved it,
apology rescinded- I'm grieving, not soft-headed :-),
but I've been trying to avoid recognizing a very tough
(for me) situation to deal
with.

She was just an any old kinda dog, mother (we think) a
red dobie, father a travelling man, and when I got
her, I didn't particularly want
her- now she's gone, I feel kinda like my right arm is
missing. I only took her because she was being abused
and neglected by her
previous owner, and he wanted to get rid of her
because he thought she was getting too old and didn't
want to deal with her. She was
10, then: she was 19 at her death. Those of you who
have met me, mostly in the MK, realize I had good
reason for calling her my 40 lb
shadow- other than at Pennsic, if you saw one of us,
the other wasn't very far away.

She was very much an experienced SCAdian, had been to
quite a number of events and demos, and always
exemplified the highest
courtesy and good manners to everyone she met. Ask
Adamantius- she was welcome in his kitchen at EK Crown
several years ago ;-)
She was certainly opinionated- if she didn't approve
of something I was doing, or wanted to do something
else, she'd definitely let me
know, but on the other hand, she'd do anything I asked
her to, if she could. When she went deaf a while back,
she switched to
responding to hand signals immediately- unless, of
course, she knew I wanted her to do something she
didn't want to do, and somehow
she'd be managing to look in the wrong direction ;-)

Her specialty at feasts was the Stubbe pre-wash
system, where she'd cheerfully pre-wash any offered
plate or pan, but she never
begged- it was not polite. She loved tacos, although I
had to get them for her without lettuce- otherwise
she'd spit out every shred,
licked clean of the hottest sauce. She loved beans,
too, although they didn't love her- she slept outside
my bedroom more than once
after a bean dinner. She always drank her water with
her nose on the edge of the bowl- she hated getting
water up her nose.

She loved swimming, although she hated baths. She rode
with us in my canoe, and conspired with Andrew to lose
our catch one day.
She saw the ocean, once, in North Carolina. We went
down to the beach and went in a bit. After a while, in
the hot sun, she thought
she'd like a drink, and took several swallows before
she realized there was Something Wrong. She got out of
the water, walked up the
beach about 10 yards, and tasted it there- it didn't
taste any better. She drank almost half a gallon of
fresh water, a few minutes later,
when we got back to the car.

She was good with other animals, and my cats consider
her an honorary cat, although she certainly didn't
think so. Playing with Those
Cats was Not Done- unless she thought I wasn't
looking. She was no more politically correct than her
owner- she was of the opinion
that food stolen from other critters tasted better- I
let her "steal" the cat food, in order to get her to
eat during her last illness. When
she weakened and fell in the yard, her cats came over
to lie with her, until I went and got her.

I had been suspecting that this was her last winter,
although I didn't want to admit it. She was weakening
and losing weight, and then
she came down with a breathing problem. I got her to
the vet, who x-rayed her, discovered a very large lung
tumor and pneumonia, and I decided to let
her go. I held her as the vet gave the shot, and felt
her last heartbeat and breath. She rode home with me,
on the front seat, as always.

She was just an any old kinda dog.....She is my
friend, and I miss her.

Phlip

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