In Memory of Morgan

In May I lost my beloved dog. She lived a long, full life, much longer than could be expected for her breed's life expectancy. Despite knowing that she managed to stay with me much longer than could have been expected, losing her was still amazingly difficult.

Morgan was half Akita and half German Shepherd. Now they call the mix a Shepkita but I always called her a Gerkita. The combination makes an amazing dog. At least Morgan was amazing. She was so smart, so beautiful, and so much like a person.

On FB I tend to avoid reading comments on "larger" posts. You know, the ones that make the rounds and end up with thousands of comments, aka the troll section. But I also tend to go to comments on some posts that interest me but by the headlines I can tell the articles are click bait. Someone in the comments always summarizes the contents of click bait.

I saw a comment in the troll section recently where a guy went off on people calling their dogs fur babies. It upset him that a growing group of the population consider their pets their children when they are just animals. I am guessing that he has never owned a pet, maybe a dog that he kept in the backyard but remembered to feed every day and change their water bowl.

When we get a dog (or a cat but I am focusing on dogs right now in memory of my Morgan) we start out with a ball of wiggly fur with a wet nose and happy tongue. As they grow and adjust to our personalities while we learn their personalities, something happens.

They love us. They are so happy to see us when we come home from a day away at an office. They make us feel loved. We spend a lot of time training them, socializing them, and playing with them. For an intelligent, stubborn, and independent dog like the Akita, that becomes a lot of work but it's necessary. Akitas are not for the timid dog owner.

Having Morgan in my life was like having another child. She was a priority. I loved her as much as she loved me. Her vocabulary exceeded the average 115 words most commonly suggested as how many words a dog can grasp. When she was a puppy I taught her words just like teaching a kid. These are your ears, your legs, your nose, your teeth, your butt, your paws... etc. And she picked up a lot of signals on her own.

In the summer I tend to go barefoot and wear sandals but for walks with Morgan I always wore tennis shoes so I would put on socks to wear shoes. She picked up on this on her own. Putting on socks during the middle of the day or evening put a smile on her face and sent her running through the house. Yet if I put on socks as part of the process for getting dressed for the day she didn't bat an eye.

She was smart, that girl. Sometimes too smart.

It was fun to watch people (especially those who rolled their eyes when you would tell Morgan stories) when they saw her in action. She would turn her head slightly and think over what I had just explained to her when it got complicated but she always understood what I said to her. When other people saw it for themselves you could clearly see the stunned comprehension on their faces. I was not making up how much she understood. She really understood.

I miss her so much. Akitas only have a life expectancy of 8-9 years and German Shepherds are 10-12 years so even with her being a mix, 14 1/2 years was an amazing run. I am grateful for that extended time but still heart broken that it had to end. She was my baby darling and I loved her.

I believe all dogs go to heaven. What kind of place would it be without them?