Cindi Lou Who... Our Puppy Princess

All good things must come to an end, right? My heart is broken. Yesterday we had to say goodbye to our puppy princess, Cindi Lou. I love her so much and this loss hurts so bad. I miss her already. I hate how empty the house feels without her. Cindi was the most beautiful puppy girl I have ever known and she will forever hold a special place in our hearts. 14 years ago Scott and I moved into our brand new home with our puppy, Yogi. Yogi loved his new great big yard to run and play in... but coming from a house full of people (my parents, my brother and Scott and I) he was NEVER alone. Suddenly he was in a house by himself as Scott and I went to work. Something was missing... Cindi Lou! Scott and I knew that we wanted to "rescue" a dog and our hearts first lead us to adopt a greyhound. But before we made our final decision we just had to make one final visit to our local shelter. And THAT is where Cindi Lou found us!

Calm... oh no. Not hardly! She was literally jumping up and down as high as our heads! We simply couldn't miss looking into her big brown eyes as she asked us to be her forever family! Lucky was her name, though we felt that a 4 month old puppy who had found herself at the pound not once but twice in her short life was anything but... Lucky. But what's in a name? So we changed her name to Cindi. As in Cindi Bear... Yogi Bear's girlfriend, Get it? To go with our Yogi. Later that year, Dr. Seuss's The Grinch played on the big screen...and Cindi became Cindi Lou Who;) But what's in a name???? This little girl made us feel like the Luckiest puppy owners around!I guess WE were Lucky... to have found Cindi Lou Who.

In her younger years she was a ball of energy, literally...like maybe we gave her expresso instead of water in her bowl! All she ever needed was ball and someone to throw it as far as they could! Cindi Lou was a speed demon of sorts. She ran faster than any puppy I know! She was a blur as she chased down those balls and brought it back to place in the palm of your hand. Within seconds she was ready to fetch it again! In fact, your arm got tired of throwing the ball before SHE ever got tired!

And jump... WOW! This girlie could jump. She was like a puppy trampoline she jumped so high... all four paws off the ground! She loved when you would throw the ball as high as you could and she would jump as high as she could to catch it. That poor ball never even had a chance! Cindi Lou, like her brother, loved to go for walks and to play in the water. We would go for walks down between the canal and the river and she loved to wade in to wet her belly and splash the water with her mouth like she was eating it. One of my favorite memories is the time she jumped off the dock into the deep water of the canal. At first she panicked, but then she realized that she could swim... oh, yes, the doggie paddle was her favorite stroke that day. Needless to say she NEVER jumped into the water off that dock again! We actually used to have a car (my first car that we didn't trade in) that we called the puppy car... it was the car we took when the dogs came with us. They loved it... there was no air conditioning so their heads and tongues stuck out the windows and their ears blew in the breeze. And it didn't matter if they made the seats wet or muddy or full of fur. It was afterall THEIR CAR! And there was the time when we were having our front porch built. It is quite high off the ground and drops down a fairly steep hill to the front yard. She would use the porch like a an airplane uses a runway... Just run as fast she could and FLY...and fly she would right off the porch and halfway down the hill! It brings back smiles to think of these times when Yogi and Cindi Lou were our only children.

But better yet are the memories when our furry children got their sister and brother! Both Yogi and Cindi Lou loved our kids from the moment they laid eyes on them. Shasha has had a super special bond with them both since... well the day we received our referral from China.Who was with me when I found the FedEx package containing all the information and pictures of our beautiful little girl? Cindi Lou and Yogi.

Who greeted Shasha and Po with kisses when they arrived home from the airport? and entertained them day in and day out? Cindi Lou and Yogi.

Who was forced to share their water bowls and puppy teats with Shasha? Cindi Lou and Yogi. Our puppies made a real impression on Shasha and Po... they actually thought they were dogs just like them:)

Oh, If only they knew what was in store for them! It was quite a ride! Both puppies loved the kids but Cindi Lou... oh, how she made out in the deal! Cindi Lou was quite the moocher... she loved patiently waiting next to the kids chairs while they were eating waiting for tiny morsels to drop to the floor. Who are we kidding? Cindi snatched them BEFORE they hit the floor. She was THAT fast.

And don't leave food sitting around... many a cookies were missing from the end tables and couch cushions were the kids would leave them.

Cindi Lou loved to have ears rubbed and her belly scratched. She loved giving wet kisses and she was great at simply staring deep into our eyes to tell us how much she loved us. She cuddled close at night and followed us around everywhere we went. She loved being where the kids were. If only time could stand still. But as the great memories of Cindi Lou with the kids grew in leaps and bounds.. so did her age. We enjoyed just shy of 14 years with our beautiful puppy princess(she would have been 14 in May) but the memories that she gave us will certainly last forever. She has been with us through so many wonderful parts of our lives and having her a part of those moments made them even more special. She made life better.

We knew this was inevitable but somehow it seemed that she was immortal. She became sick in January and we were sure the end had come... but our Cindi Lou, she was a fighter. She lived for us. She lived simply to love us and get loved in return. Our girl had more love to give than any other. And it was so very hard to accept it when her eyes looked into ours and said, "I love you so much but I am ready to see Yogi again." Cindi Lou will forever be our puppy princess and I know that she is wearing her puppy tiara and smiling once again with a ball at her feet. It is just so hard to say good bye to a puppy girl who has been a best friend for so very long and loved you so much.

We will miss you our princess...We love you Cindi Lou. Now, Play Ball...until your heart is content<3