Goodbye Zoé

In January 2003 a cute and playful little puppy suckered me into bringing her home.  She was 3 months old at the time, playful, gregarious, and cute as they come, and she pooped in my car in the 2 miles from the shelter to my house...seriously pooped, like she must have weighed half as much when she was done pooped, and while she was small she wasn't tiny:

In the first year she managed to be very cute while destroying the carpeting in my apartment...and my recliners...and my boots...and my wallet...and my PDA (remember those?  Mine was a Sony!)...and the moldings...and the vertical blinds...and the feed line for the toilet (flooding the bathroom)...and the bathroom wall, removing insulation behind it...and eating a pound of the 50% off chocolate I picked up after easter--it didn't seem to do anything but give her colorful foil poop for a day or two.

But still, she was cute, so she managed to get away with all that...it was particularly cute that she did these things when I was gone because she missed me (everyone: "Awww!").  She was the devil, but that was ok.  Eventually she got through that phase, and no one who has met her since believes she was ever capable of such wanton destruction. 

In fact, pretty much everyone agreed she was the best dog in the world, including her...

She loved going for walks particularly at Wissahickon...

She managed to get herself invited onto stranger's beds...

She even put up with us when we would make her pose for silly pictures like this...

 And this...

And we couldn't just leave her sleep when she was being this cute...

She'd like you to think she was indifferent toward the cats

But we knew the truth...they were conspiring together...

At the young age of 9 she developed an animosity toward dead tree limbs that lasted through her final years...

And to anyone who doesn't think she was the best dog ever...she's got something to say to you...

In July 2013 she was diagnosed with lymphoma.  One round of chemo and a very short remission took her to January 2014, when the vets gave her 2-3 months (3 months with further treatment).  Because the chemo had been rough on her we decided to forego.  She decided that she should be around longer than that.  At least long enough to see us get married (remotely):

Zoé passed away on July 14 2014 after nearly twelve years on earth, eleven and a half with me, and a bit over four years with Debbie.  She will be missed, but really, now, it's...

Time for her to go exploring...

We love you Zoé.