It's hard to say goodbye...

It was very hard to say goodbye, but we laid to rest my best buddy yesterday.

Tex Folks

January 2001 - March 2014 

Where do I even begin telling Tex's story...there's so much history between the two of us.  A year after I graduated from college, I decided that I wanted a dog.  My family is FULL of dog lovers, and especially of labs.  I knew I couldn't have a lab in the apartment that I was living in, so I bought a house.  Yep, I bought a house so that I could get Tex :)

I had two friends move in.  Taby was gung ho about getting a dog, and Anna was a little more...ummm, reasonable.  

I remember her comment exactly.  "Mandi, do you really think we're responsible enough to get a dog?"

I think I responded "You're probably right." 

And a week later I brought Tex home :)

Taby's good friend was a beautician and one of her clients mentioned that they had a 1 year old yellow lab that they had birthed to be a hunting dog.  He was trained well, but was just too lazy to be a good hunting dog.

A well-trained, lazy dog.

PERFECT!

It was June of 2002 when Taby and I drove to Holt, Missouri, about an hour drive from Olathe to pick him up.  I'll never forget the first time we set eyes on him.  He came running from behind their house, he was dirty and ungroomed.  He ran all goofy and clumsily, and had another little dog yipping at his face as he ran (to which he wasn't the least bothered).

We took him home, cleaned him up, and made him ours :)  

He had never been up or down stairs and we lived in a split level house, so that was his first lesson.  He also had never had a dog treat or dog bone before...that didn't take too long for him to catch onto either! 

Jacob and I met in December of 2002, so about six months after we got Tex, and originally he was NOT a fan.  I had made the statement before that I'd never date a guy that wasn't a dog lover.

I ate my words big time.

The first time Jacob came to my house, he backed himself into a corner and used a chair like a lion tamer to keep Tex away from him.  Seriously?!?!  As you can tell from the picture above taken in 2004, he slowly warmed up to both Tex and my cat, Baby. 

I'm not sure I'd quite call Jacob a dog lover...but he certainly became a Tex lover.  It was impossible not to, he was the best dog ever.

Now don't get me wrong, in his younger years, we had our moments :)  I traveled quite a bit in my early career days, and when I was away, my roommates would tend to Tex.  Tex would get anxious when I traveled and it was make him have an upset stomach...sometimes upset all over the carpet.  Poor Anna got to clean that up one too many times.

He became a good scavenger too -- like eating the entire box of chocolates that Jacob bought me for Valentine's Day, and when he bought me a replacement box...

Yep, Tex ate that one too!

And after Taby moved out, another friend Lisa moved in.  Lisa wasn't a dog person either, and wasn't too happy when Tex helped himself to her birthday cake that Anna left sitting on the table.

When I texted Anna yesterday to tell her the news of Tex's passing, she responded

"I have such fond memories of him and maybe a few not so fond memories"

While she and Lisa certainly had their Tex struggles, I credit him for turning them into dog people.  Both of them now have TWO dogs of their own!

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Tex was the best road tripper!  He just slept peacefully in the backseat...sometimes in odd positions :)

Tex's life changed as drastically as ours in December 2007 when Mitchell entered our world.

He was the easiest going dog and the addition of a baby who became the center of our universe didn't seem to affect him at all!  He knew his place and was never anything but kind and gentle to the boys.

He became especially fond of Mitchell when Mitchell began to eat table foods.  Tex literally gained 10 pounds that year!  Mitchell thought Tex was a garbage disposal :)

This might be my favorite picture ever of Tex and Mitchell.  Notice Mitchell's tongue hanging out panting like his buddy :)

Texy LOVED his trips to the dog park and swims in the lake as much as we enjoyed taking him.  In fact, when I have my choice, the place I would most like to spend time is at the dog park with my whole family, including the four legged members. :)

So for 8 years, every two years Tex would watch my belly grow and we'd bring home another baby.  If only I could have read his mind :)'

Here is Texy with a newborn Maverick in 2010.

And then we threw him for a loop.  In August of 2011, we brought home something else.  This "baby" didn't have two legs.  He had four.  Tex was starting to show his age.  In fact, he was going down hill fast.  I didn't want to go "dogless" and we thought that if we got a new dog it might help us morning the sorrow of losing our ol' buddy, so we brought home Pilot.

Pilot was an 8 month old Labradoodle, that was full of energy.  He quickly became Tex's best friend and all of the sudden, our declining old dog started to regain strength and act like a young dog again!

We have Pilot to thank for the last 3 years of Tex's life!

For our last few years in Kansas, Tex really enjoyed the fact that my life had gotten too busy to watch him like a hawk when I let him out to potty.  He took advantage of his new freedom by going on adventures around our neighborhood.

His favorite route was to cut through our backyard, over our bridge and make his way down to our neighbors house, the Chalfies.  He would wait at their front screen door until they would notice him and let him in.  They would spoil him with treats or brush his hair, until I finally came to pick him up....again!  One day, Jill loaded him into her van and tried to drop him back off at our house, but he wouldn't get out of the van!  He loved the Chalfies (and so do we!)

Picture of my first "child" while carrying my last child.

As I type Pilot is searching.  Ceaselessly searching around our house for his friend.  They spent every waking moment together for the last three years and he's REALLY going to miss his ol' buddy...maybe even more than me! 

I took these last two pictures right before Tex was laid to rest.  Laying in the middle of the room, because if you have to step over him, you might just stop and pet him in the process.  He's next to baby toys, a typical feature in our house and foot away from his friend, Pilot.

There was no place he'd rather be.  

Tex saw me grow from a young, irresponsible, carefree career-oriented, Kansas girl to a middle aged, wife, and Minnesota mom of four...and really the only thing that those two lives had in common was this dog. 

This amazing, loyal, friendly dog.

I owe a huge thank you to my sister, Kelli for taking Texy to the vet for me yesterday.  I just couldn't do it.

Her text said...

"I got to sit in the waiting room with him for a couple of minutes and give him lots of kisses and a good rub down before we went back.  The doctor was really nice, and Tex went very peacefully.  So glad I could be with him, as it was nice for someone he knows to hold his head to give him kisses!  Such a sweet boy!"

I told him when he left me yesterday that I'll see him again someday, and I truly believe that to be true.