Ms. Pearl was half Labrador retriever and half Australian shepherd, which meant she possessed excellent retrieving abilities and spent much of her time when there were guests shepherding them, circling the crowd, imploring everyone to please, please stick together. "Pattie, my sister in law once said, "Why won't that dog lie down?" I told her, "She's keeping us together."
She was an excellent retriever, too, Tom's hunting buddy, always ready for hunting. On her last turkey hunt, Tom and Pearlie were sitting on a hillside, calling a lone turkey across the valley, but the big bird didn't seem too keen on seeing who was making turkey noises. As Tom often does, he nodded off and took a little nap, his dog right next to him. Tom felt a nudge at his knee and woke up to see Pearl point her nose at the turkey, now walking their way. Tom said it was if Pearl was saying, "Hey, stupid, wake up! There he is!" She was a good hunter to the end.
It's always devastating when a dog has to go, and when a dog has been in your family for thirteen years, it really is like a family member has left. We knew we wanted another dog, though, so started looking for Aussie-Lab rescues on the internet. We saw a few likelies in Colorado, but they wouldn't adopt to New Mexico. New Mexicans must have a bad track record with dogs. In fact, many rescues and shelters in New Mexico send their dogs to Colorado for adoption. So Colorado was out. There were some Lab mixes in Arizona, but they wanted us to go to Arizona to spend a few days with the possible dogs we found, which is a good idea so one can see if they are compatible, but just too much red tape for us. We kept looking, though. And looking. But back to Ms. P.
Our Ms. Pearl was probably the smartest dog we've ever had.
She herded cattle. Well, sometimes they herded her.
She was a world class cuddler.
A good friend to Miss Bonnie. Bonnie was her frenemy.
Loved to swim
and the snow
Was a good traveling buddy, although in later years after a traumatic drive through thunder and lightning, she needed drugs.
And she was the best hunting partner a man could ever have.
Why do we have pets when they die so soon? I guess Will Rogers says it better than I can.
"The misery of keeping a dog is his dying so soon...but, to be sure, ..."if there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went."
Did we get another dog? Yes.
