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This is the last photo of my beloved Boxer Coos Bay Lovey Dovey… and I cry.To friends and family. My beloved Boxer Lovey has passed away. Everyone grieves in their own way. Apparently, my way is to cry and write. I don’t want to forget all the colorful and goofy moments and the myriad of memories she brought to my life. So, amid my tears… here is the story of my Lovey.My landlord Mike’s AKC Boxer, Sasha, had a litter of seven pups mid-winter; December 22, 2007. One tiny brown and black brindle pup had the most perfect Boxer markings. She had tall white socks on all four paws, an upside-down white question mark on her muzzle plus this cool white dove-like mark like the ‘Nike’ logo on the back of her neck. She was almost skinny and about one-third the size and weight of her litter-mates. I remember it took two hands to hold the other pups but it only took just the palm my hand to hold her. Because of her markings, we called this little runt Dovey, then Lovey-Dovey and then eventually, just Lovey.Poor Lovey kept getting pushed off Sasha’s teats by the six stronger pups and we were worried she wouldn’t survive. I bought supplemental goat milk and began hand-feeding Lovey with an eyedropper many times a day. Whenever we brought Lovey out from Sasha’s litter for her feedings, my other dog, Yeller, a long-haired, sandy-colored Australian Shepherd-chihuahua mix female; was very excited about the little pup. Yeller would twist her head sideways to the right then to the left, one ear up, one ear down, pump her little front paws up and down and just stare intently at what I was doing.After a few supplement feedings, I realized Lovey would need multiple eyedroppers filled with milk each feeding. It was also a very cold winter; so, while I refilled the eyedropper, I decided to risk putting Lovey down into fuzzy Yeller’s bed to keep her warm. Yeller absolutely loved it; she immediately accepted Lovey and took to her as if she were her own pup Yeller had never been mated not had she ever had a litter herself. Yeller cleaned that little pup and kept herself wrapped around her as if she automatically understood it was her job to keep this baby warm. If a dog’s expression ever said thank you, I could read that all over Yeller’s face.Within a day, I recall chuckling and telling Mike, “Look at how cute, little Lovey is trying to nurse on Yeller.” Yeller didn’t seem to mind at all. She was very patient and gentle with Lovey and waited gingerly for me to return the pup to her each time I’d set the puppy with her when the eyedropper had to be refilled. When I had to return Lovey back to Sasha and her litter-mates; Yeller would pace outside the closed door looking for Lovey.Lovey’s feeding routine continued into the second week; fill eyedropper with warm milk, feed Lovey, put Lovey down with warm foster-mom Yeller, refill eyedropper, remove Lovey from Yeller’s nipple, then repeat the process. Whenever I returned Lovey to her real mom, Yeller would always pace outside the door and then lay down and wait. You could Yeller was not happy when I returned Lovey to Sasha and shut the door.I think it was day fourteen when I was in the middle of supplement feeding Lovey that I noticed something remarkable. I filled the eyedropper, pulled Lovey off Yeller’s teat nipple and when I started to put the eyedropper into her toothless little mouth; there was still milk around Lovey’s mouth and on her tongue. I had a confusing half-thought; why is there milk still on her mouth? I eyedropper-fed Lovey then put her back down with Yeller to keep warm while refilling the eyedropper once again. Lovey immediately found Yeller’s nipple. This time I paid very close attention before I picked up Lovey.I removed Lovey from Yeller’s teat and there was milk all around Lovey’s mouth once again. I put Lovey back down and she immediately latched back onto Yeller’s teat. I reached down and felt Yeller’s chest. Yeller’s mammary glands were absolutely engorged. I squeezed the teat opposite where Lovey was latched on and suckling away. A milk stream shot out about a foot and a half from Yeller’s nipple. Yeller’s mammary glands were completely filled with milk!My only knowledge of animals wet-nursing pups was from watching ‘Meerkats’ TV show on the Animal Planet channel. Mother meerkats keep their older daughters home to wet-nurse their latest litter so they can leave and forage for food. I had never heard of a dog; especially one who never had her own litter, produce milk for a pup that was not her own. Yeller was not spayed; so, I imagine since she still had the proper hormones to develop milk, she did. But did Lovey’s suckling her trigger the production of her milk? I was flabbergasted.After that day, Lovey no longer needed to supplement-feeding. Yeller fed her through the winter and Lovey thrived. Here we were so all worried about the health of this precariously puny runt and it turns out nature gave that girl two mothers to nurse her. When Lovey got bigger she even showed the other pups where they could get extra milk. Yeller didn’t mind; and, it was amazing seeing Yeller nurse three pups half her own size. Lovey never got as big as her litter-mates but she was absolutely perfect in every way.When she was 8-weeks old, Mike gave Lovey to his then-girlfriend Joy. Of course I was heart-broken because I wanted to keep her; but, they were Mike’s dogs after all. Joy has a sweet soul and looks like a real-life angel. She has a beautiful cherub face, she’s always smiling, has perfect translucent skin with a few cute freckles, short cut fair-hair, big blue-eyes and wears size 12 shoes. She had lost an older dog of her own a few months back and I knew she’d be good to Lovey. She lived in Albany and because of the distance, her relationship with Mike didn’t last; but, we are all still good friends. Joy tried to keep Lovey but it only lasted a few weeks. Apparently Lovey didn’t like her kennel or the baseboards and doors at Joy’s second-story apartment. When Joy went to work, Lovey chewed and clawed through most of all of them. Joy was sad she had to bring Lovey back to Mike but was forced to return Lovey before she caused much more expensive property damage.I snapped Lovey up the very day she came back. I bought her from Mike that day and mailed her AKC papers with my name as her owner immediately. She was mine and her official AKC registered name was Coos Bay Lovey Dovey. Lovey and I never looked back from them on.Lovey absolutely had attitude. When we played ball with all the other pups and she didn’t get to keep the ball to herself; she would go into her kennel and honestly sulk She would refuse to play at all for the rest of the day. But when she got to play alone with me, Lovey would get the ball in her mouth, whip her head sideways and toss that ball back to me. I’ve never seen another dog that could throw a ball. Ah, but Lovey was too classy to fetch; instead, we would throw that ball back and forth. She learned sit, handshake, speak, lay down and roll over quicker than the other pups. She could jump straight up like a kangaroo on command too.When the pups were 10-weeks old, Mike fashioned a 10x10x4 foot chained link fence enclosure with a dog house inside and sealed the top with a mesh. We would put Lovey and the remaining unsold baby boxers in the enclosure when we had to leave the property. This sealed enclosure was inside a separate back pasture that was approximately 300x300-foot and had it’s own 4-foot fence and locking gates. All of this was encompassed inside of a 5-foot fence that surrounds the entire property.We found out that Lovey could not be caged. She was smaller and would find a weak spot in the chain or she’d push herself through the mesh top. She would also climb 4-foot chained link fence around the pasture. No matter how many times we fixed or re-secured that kennel; she would always escape. We would come home to that little stinker sitting up on the back deck outside the back door of the house while her bigger litter mates looked longingly from their 10x10 foot enclosure in the back pasture. I cannot count the number of, “okay how’d she get out this time?” moments we experienced.Lovey and her sister Sadie were best buds. The only other time Lovey really got into real ‘spanking’ trouble was when she was with Sadie and they cornered Molly, our dumb chicken. Molly just couldn’t keep her feathered butt (and chicken poop) off the covered deck (we had another chicken named Porchetta too). Molly had been ‘mauled’ earlier by Sasha (hence Molly). Lovey and Sadie managed to rip through poor Molly’s craw. Of course, mama Becci rescued and nursed Molly back to health and showed the puppies that she was our friend... do not eat! Because she had survived being mauled earlier and now the pups ripped up her craw; the goofy chicken was renamed Molly Crawford and she still wouldn’t stay off the damn deck.My brother Dan moved in across the street. If Lovey would see me leave the yard and walk over to Dan’s; and, even though I’d secured the gate, within minutes she’d show up at Dan’s door. It was scary because she could be hit by a car crossing the road. We even put a rubber-snubber on the gate in case she figured out how to lift the gate latch. She still got out. We could not figure out how she was getting out of a 5-foot chain-link fenced yard that was secured. I asked Mike to stay on his cell-phone with me and peek out his back door and watch Lovey after I left to walk over to Dan’s place. Mike watched that little escape artist scale that 5-foot chain link gate like a mountain-climber and jump down into the driveway. She just wanted to be with me. After that, she usually went with me everywhere.There was never a dog so perfect on a leash. She was so good I could tie her leash to my belt loop and almost forget she was there. She walked with me stride by stride. The only time she would ever tug was when she got all excited when I caught a fish. She loved the ocean and she and Yeller would run along in the tide cutting in and out really fast. Lovey loved to dig in the sand at the ocean. I could point out a spot on the sand and say “Dig” and she’d go to town digging a deep hole and flinging sand everywhere until the hole filled with too much sea water.When I went looking for sand shrimp for bait on the beach, she was my partner. I’d tether her leash to a side loop on my jeans. If a sand shrimp attempted to hide after I’d dumped out the sand pump, she would dig and scrape out the hiding sand shrimp for me. When she wanted something, she made no bones about telling me with a whine or a bark. She loved going in the car with me and would sulk if I didn’t take her along.She didn’t fight against me when it was nail trimming time (I even painted her nails pink a few times) and she loved a bath too. Occasionally, she would tolerate doggie clothes but she really seemed to prance a bit taller when she was sporting her red neck scarf.When she was three, she developed pyometra and had to have a very expensive emergency hysterectomy operation. While I was checking her stitches just 7 day’s later, I found a big hard lump on her belly. I took her back to the vet to have her stitches out and the vet told about the lump. He felt it and was pretty sure it was cancer. So for the second time in three weeks, Lovey had another, and even more expensive operation to remove her cancer. I couldn’t afford to buy anyone Christmas gifts that year; and it didn’t ever matter. The best Christmas gift was still having my amazing girl Lovey. My little runt had beat both the pyometra and the cancer.Lovey would enjoy going with me when I would go sell chicken eggs down on the docks in Charleston. I was the ‘Egg Lady,’ and she would be tethered at my hip because I needed both my hands to collect money and hand out the cartons of eggs. She interacted well with all the other dogs on the boats and would get pets from our customers. They would always say “She’s so beautiful,” and I think she knew it too. Her reaction to the first time she saw a seal was priceless. She whined and ducked her head down and jumped sideways and then did it again; she desperately wanted to play with this enormous 1000 pound wild seal. I think that was the only time I’ve ever had to tug her away from something on the leash.One day, Mike and I were out fishing on the California Street dock. When I fished, Lovey was always tethered to my hip by leash. Normally, Lovey just sits by my side but Mike had brought his Boxer, Sadie. Sadie was very sweet but she was a leash nightmare and she had her nose into everything. Mike was determined to bring Sadie fishing but she kept pulling on him too hard. Since Lovey was so good, we switched and I took Sadie. Lovey was not used to having her sister there on the dock and she was wanting to see what Sadie was doing. Anyway, this big old piece of square wood debris had floated up right next to the dock. Mike had not tethered Lovey to his jeans. Lovey decided she would step out onto that big piece of driftwood. When she did, the driftwood rolled and Lovey went off the dock and right into the bay. Thankfully, we were able to get her out of the water quickly and the driftwood did not roll on top of her. That would have been more frightening. This event earned Lovey the nickname “Kersploosh!”I never saw Lovey snap or growl at anyone or at any other animal. She got along with everyone including chickens and cats. She would even take a nap with kittens in her bed. She loved to climb up on my bed; she was a bed-hog and she could snore pretty good too. She was a little picky about her food at times except when it came to cheese. We would feed feral kittens string cheese to try and friendly them up and here would come Lovey. Mike would say “Oh look, it’s big kitty!” She just loved string cheese.When she was five, her litter-mate and sweet sister Sadie suddenly had a heart attack and passed away. Yeller, Lovey’s second mom, passed away that year too.By her 9th year, I had to put stairs on the side of my bed because Lovey’s jump was fading.On her 10th year, Lovey’s mother, Sasha had to be put down and Lovey was the only dog left here. Our little runt had outlived all the other dogs. Within a few months, Mike rescued a handsome stud Boxer named Smokey so Lovey had a deck buddy to lay with in the sunshine once again.By her 11th year I had to stop letting Lovey up on my bed. She’d miss the stairs going down and she would fall. Afraid she’d break something or she’d get hurt; the bed stairs were removed. She told me she wasn’t happy about it and she’d whine to get up on the bed. She had started developing cataracts by then too. She got around just fine but our toss ball game faded away as her eyesight failed.August 2019 Lovey started not eating all of her food. I had a vet check her and he said she was fine, but she was geriatric. After that, she had a few indoor wetting accidents and slowly began to decline. I had to guide her to her food and coax her to go outside to go potty. Many times it seemed like she forgot what she was doing and I’d have to remind her. She just wanted to sleep all the time and ate less and less food by the end of September.If I didn’t monitor her, she would end up in the weirdest places. She kept pushing herself into small dark spaces. Twice she shoved herself up behind the small space between the clothes dryer and the wall. Getting her out backward from behind there was very difficult. Eventually, it was best to just move the laundry basket over to block her access. Another time, she trapped herself under my wicker chair. I thought I had successfully blocked it off; but, no, she managed to squeeze herself under there again and could not see her way out without my help. She even tried to climb under my desk where I keep my dead Roomba vacuum. She was pawing at it and turning around in circles under the desk. The Roomba vacuum battery won’t charge up anymore because it wouldn’t load back onto the charging wall cradle correctly any more. I wasn’t that worried about her damaging the Roomba but I was concerned she would hurt herself because she was tripping and pawing at it under the desk. It hurt to see her so confused and I knew my amazing little girl was losing it and was not going to get any better.By the second week of October, my ‘big kitty” Lovey would not even come out of her kennel for string cheese treats and she wasn’t just sulking. She seemed confused and would still try and crawl in dark places. I took her out to the ocean bay and I had to lift her in and out of the car. She walked only a short way and she sat and sniffed the ocean air. She wouldn’t “dig” in the sand but I think she appreciated the road trip. We just sat there side by side with my arms around her at sunset and I cried for her and for me.October 18, 2019 - Lovey is no longer in the physical world with us... and me. She had been declining fast for days, eating less and drinking less until she wanted no more. Her entire life, Lovey had always been very vocal if she wanted food, ball, go potty or just my attention. During her last weeks, I never heard her whine or cry out, so I don’t believe she was in any pain. The last two weeks of her life, I tried to love on her just as much as I could. It was time to help her go. She enriched my life like nothing else I have ever experienced. I will always miss my beautiful Lovey girl and hope I will see her again in whatever afterlife brings.Post Script: October 19, 2019. I woke this morning at 7am to the unfamiliar sound of my Roomba vacuum. For some amazing reason my Roomba vacuum started all by itself this morning and began vacuuming my carpet as if on schedule. The battery shows full green and fully charged. The Roomba hasn’t run for over a year and the battery indicator had been sitting on red. I think my amazing and confused little Lovey managed to get the Roomba back on the wall charge plate correctly even though I couldn’t. Life is so strange. Thank you Lovey.