Trixie passed away very early in the morning this morning February 4, 2010.
Trixie the Wonder Dog 1993-2010
Trixie made over two dozen SCCX off-road trips with Noon and I. She loved the adventure. She would know days in advance of a pending trip and start to follow us around a bit closer than normal as if to tell us to not forget her. She never met anyone she didn't love and few could resist her gentle soul.
She was adopted by our family back in the fall of 1993 in Alameda up in the San Francisco Bay area. We had been visiting local shelters for about six months looking for a small to medium sized dog to replace our borrowed dog "Trixie" who we had to leave with her owner in Australia. One day we came to the shelter and I could hear a small dog barking inside the enclosed kennels. I told Noon that was our dog. When we signed in we found Trixie in a cage full of pit bulls and German shepherds. We looked over the adoption note on the door and the dog's name was Trixie ... we thought the odds against that were too great. The note mentioned the previous owner had to turn her in because she was a runner and would come to her name.
As we were paying the adoption fee a young family with two little girls came in and wanted to adopt Trixie. The little girls were begging and pleading for Trixie. I told them that it was too late and that she was a part of our family. Truer words were never spoken.
Trixie the Wonder Dog 1993-2010
The next day I had off and wanted to try my new dog out. I put her on the leash and she followed me right along not pulling or tugging too hard and always following my lead. I thought, she's not a runner at all, I wonder how she'll do off leash? Yeah. So we had a very large park between our townhome and Bay so I slipped of the leash ... and she was off! Back then I had two good legs under me still and I was in much better shape so I started running after her and calling her name. She zipped from one end of that park to the other and I was running as fast as I could for over 20 minutes before a girl came out with her dog. Trixie was a bit interested in the other dog. I asked the girl if her dog would come if she called its name and could she help me. She let her dog loose and while they were sniffing tails I snagged Trixie and put the leash back on. Bad start to a good dog.
Trixie the Wonder Dog 1993-2010
I spent the next couple of days teaching her to come when called inside a gated tennis court. I was stationed aboard USS Carl Vision and had to make several months long trips away from my family. That was the first WestPac I made away from my wife and having Trixie left behind as a companion and protector helped keep Noon and I together. While on a deployment Trixie and Noon would sit in the park or in our yard for hours. Once day a little boy came up and hit Trixie in the head with a baseball bat. I wasn't there so I don't know the full story but Noon had to take her to the vet and after that for years she was afraid of smaller children and especially boys.
After a couple of years in Alameda we came down to Corona and lived in a nice townhouse there. Since I was deployed for about 18 of the 20 months after we had adopted Trixie we really didn't have a chance to bond nor did I have a chance to train her. Stationed at AFRTS I was able to come home every night after duty and train Trixie. I bought a couple of VHS tapes and a book and spent about 20 hours teaching her ten or so commands. American Eskimo dogs are brilliant dogs used in the circus of Europe to perform amazing tricks and Trixie the Wonder Dog took to training very well. The vets always thought she was a pure breed.
Trixie wasn't a barker at all. She wouldn't yap at strangers or bark at people outside at all. One night we were all asleep in the second story master bedroom when Trixie awoke and started huffing and barking in the direction of the window. The blinds and windows were closed. There was no possible way for her to have seen anything. I got up and peered out the window to find four Los Angele area blood gang members creeping past my apartment toward my neighbors. A thousand people had likely crossed under our windows in the months we lived there and Trixie and never barked. The Corona police arrived and arrested all four burglars.
Years later we moved to Washington state as I got assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln for duty. Tough times again as I spent 16 hours a day working on the ship while it was in the yards undergoing upkeep. We lived on a third story apartment there and Trixie was smart enough that we could take her out, let her go down the three flights of stairs herself, she'd wander into the green belt area and do her duty and then return up the three flights. We'd just stand at the top landing and watch. Once Noon forgot Trixie outside on one of these times and was awoken hours later by Trixie who was downstairs in the cold barking for Noon to open the door. A couple of years later it was time to return to shore duty again and once again I was down here at AFRTS for duty.
Trixie the Wonder Dog 1993-2010
Living here in Mo Valley Trixie was a part of our daily life so it only made since that she come to Buddhist temple with us. The monks and temple attendees quickly fell in love with her. We became very active in the temple and spent many many hours assisting the temple. Trixie was always there and would get along fine with all. Once I tried to take her for a walk in the open field behind the temple's property. As I stepped out of the temple's gate a couple of loose large dogs from the neighbor's property came charging at me growling and looking to bite. The braver of the two dogs started toward me until Trixie came out from behind me and went after the dog which was three times her size. It's not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog ... but come on! The dog savaged mine biting her in the hind quarters and neck before it was field goal attempt time - I punted that dog three feet high into the air for a distance of about 15 feet and chased the two of them off. Trixie ran back into the temple.
Trixie the Wonder Dog 1993-2010
Trixie had been camping with us for 13 years before we met the SCCX club so it made sense to bring her along on the runs and overnights. She loved camping with friends as that meant more area to explore and folks to beg for bacon come morning. She got along well with everyone as far as I knew. One on trip in November of 2008 to Sandstone Canyon Trixie awoke after midnight in apparent pain howling non-stop and bouncing off the corners of the tent non-stop. We couldn't comfort her at all. Knowing her super-natural abilities from the arrests in Corona we thought she was trying to tell us something so we got dressed, put her on a leash and let her run. She wouldn't stop for 20 minutes. In hind sight she had suffered an aneurysm. She seemed alright for months afterward but the changes slowly set in.
You go girl ... go! She loved to chase the squirrels.
Trixie the Wonder Dog 1993-2010
Trixie the Wonder Dog 1993-2010
At one point about a year ago she started going blind, she couldn't hear much, and she only circled to the right. About three months ago she became so blind that she had to be hand fed but still continued to lose weight. About a month ago she stopped circling and was able to walk in straight lines a bit and make some left hand turns. Yesterday the end came. In the morning Noon said that Trixie was having seizures. She didn't call me to let me know. About 7 o'clock last night she started howling again in pain. I took a pain pill and crushed it and put it down her throat. She stopped crying we started crying. Trixie hadn't eaten all night. She woke up again about 11:00 PM and a second and third pill didn't comfort her. We ended up rushing 45 miles to a 24 hour vet where my best friend was given an injection and released from her pains.
Trixie the Wonder Dog 1993-2010
Best.Dog.Ever.
Trixie the Wonder Dog 1993-2010
I'm still suffering with the loss but really it was only her body that gave up yesterday. I'm not sure dogs have a soul and I'm certainly not sure about heaven but I do know that if dogs do, and there is, that Trixie has crossed over that bridge and is waiting in that grassy meadow in heaven for her daddy to come home just like she did for 17 years here.
Trixie the Wonder Dog 1993-2010
The pain we're going through is tremendous and had to be like the loss of a child because I can't imagine a bigger heartbreak. I got about three hours sleep last nigh, called in sick and I'm going to try to get myself together over the next three or four days and start faking life again.
Friends and acquaintances thanks in advance for your kind words and for letting me vent here.
Trixie the Wonder Dog 1993-2010
Trixie resting on her last trip off-road. We sort of wanted to keep active and get her "out there" where she loved so much.
Rest in peace, rest in peace.
