Amber

Amber, a chocolate lab of great emotions and intelligence, lived 14 years and three months.  For a large dog, the Vet tells me 14 years and three months is a long life.  For me, 14 years and three months seems far to short for a life, which touched so many people.  In dog years, Amber lived for 99 years.  I am still of a mind that 99 dogs years were not enough.

I loved Amber and every person in my family loved Amber.  My friend, Drew, love Amber too.  She died yesterday and I miss her tonight.

Here are my best memories of Amber, they stand out so clearly in my mind.

• Elaine bringing Amber home to live with her.  The interesting part was Elaine still lived with us, so does that mean Amber just lives in her bedroom?
• Elaine getting married and moving to a new home with her husband.  Elaine gone - Amber still with MaryAnn and me.  Hmmm?
• Amber deciding that one family was not big enough.  So, she would walk along our dead end street and visit from house to house.  She played with all of the children and begged food from all the adults. Labs are always hungry and Labs are able to convince anyone that they have not had any food for at least 48 hours.  Lies, lies, lies. She ate 30 minutes ago!
• Amber grows to weight over 100 pounds.  Dr. Hannigan tells us, "Amber needs to lose some weight."  I thought, "why are you telling me that, I only feed her once a day.  Tell the neighbors."  But, instead I just smiled and nodded my head at Dr. Hannigan.
• Over the next five years, Amber did not lose one single pound, but the neighbors loved her.
• Amber using her body to trap 18 month-old Max in the corner of our living room because she thought he would fall down the stairs.
• Amber trying to jump in to take a ride in our red Ford Ranger.  And, when she did ride in the truck, her head was out the window and her tongue hung out ten inches.
• For many years, Amber going to Stout Elementary Pet Day to the first grade classrooms.  One year in Kendra Lewis's room, I brought Amber and her rubber green barbell toy.  We always played fetch with her green barbell and I thought it would be a good demonstration for how a Lab retrieves ducks.
• So, standing in front of the first grade room with Amber, I tossed the green rubber barbell to the back of the classroom.  Now, I expected Amber to run down the row of desks and retrieve the toy.  Instead, Amber decided to use a shorter route.  She jumped straight over a first grade boy who was sitting calmly at his desk.  Amber had to have reached a height of five feet because she cleared the boy without touching a hair on his head.  Mrs. Lewis and I were speechless; the boy looked to be in shock.  Amber padded back to the front of the room with the green barbell in her mouth.
• Amber running with me when I use to run 45 miles each week.  We (Amber and me) soon discovered that on the winter runs, she would out race me every time.  But, on the summer runs, I always cleaned her clock. I could out run her because I wasn't running in a brown fur coat in the summer heat.  I have to admit; on the summer runs I would tease her that I was king of road and she would never catch me.  She just ran hard anyway.
• Amber coming to meet me ever day when I came home from work.  She would wag her tail and give short barks.  Those barks sounded like yips.  I thought she was saying "yippee, you are home." 
• Amber putting her head on my thigh while I watched TV so I would rub her forehead and ears.
• Amber sleeping outside our bedroom door every night while MaryAnn and I slept.  I knew we never needed an alarm or a gun for personal protection, because we had a 90+ pound chocolate hero. outside our door.  Amber would have died keeping use safe.
• Yesterday, I kept the bargain.  I kept her safe and stopped her pain.

Have no doubt, for me and everyone in my family, 14 years and three months was too short.  Even, 99 dog years was to short.  We will never have another Amber, but we loved having this one.