Rainbow Bridge Memorial

Dearly missed by Peg and Rick Barker

Snoopy joined our family after we lost our precious Eagle. Trey was so grief stricken at having lost her special pal that we knew we had to find her another companion. She turned her nose up at several male Greyhounds and we began to wonder if she would ever accept any of them. That’s when Snoopy came in. Unlike the other dogs that sniffed around her, Snoop simply walked over to the dog bed next to the one Trey was on and plopped down. That was it. Shortly after that, we headed for the truck and Snoop wasted no time in jumping up into the back seat area for the trip home. He was a big guy and Trey was a small female but not so small that Snoop didn’t manage to step on her, sit on her and lose his footing—on her. Trey quickly learned that if she crawled under the covering over the back part of the truck, Snoop couldn’t follow because he was too big.

For five months Trey and Snoopy played together, raced together and kept each other company. They loved seeing who could get to the door first when Dad came home. It was a wonderful game they played each evening and Dad enjoyed being met so exuberantly at the end of the day.

Then suddenly Trey began to fail. She lost most of her sight and her back and back legs became so painful she had a hard time walking. Snoop stepped right up to the plate and made himself Trey’s caregiver. Carefully, so he wouldn’t hurt her, he would lightly press his body against hers to lead her down the stairs and back up again. He helped her when they were out in the yard too. When she would find a good spot to lie down to soak up a little sun, it was Snoops cue to do whatever he wanted to do—but he was ever watchful of her. His heart was broken when Trey was no longer with us. He searched for her and finally just lay on his bed and refused to play or go on walks. Our poor boy was lost in his grief. That’s when we decided it was time for another trip over to the GPI kennels to see if he could find another friend.

Snoop went through a number of dogs he refused to have anything to do with until Lady walked in. She was the one! After spending some time to be sure he had picked the right match for him, it was time to head for home. Rick opened the back door to the truck and they quickly jumped in.

Snoop was so sweet – he even “allowed” Lady to have a few of his toys. There were a couple of times though when he changed his mind and when no one was looking, he’d grab the toys one by one and run upstairs to hide them under his bed. One of the funniest times was when I brought home two large thick bones from the pet store. OH BOY! They were a couple of very happy hounds. However, apparently Snoop thought he should really have both bones because he would grab Lady’s when she wasn’t looking. I had seen his theft of the bone so I followed him upstairs to where he was laying on his night-time bed in our room. Yep, there he was, chomping on HIS bone. I looked around for the other one when I noticed Snoop wouldn’t look at me. He looked up, he looked down-he looked to the right and then to the left but he didn’t look at me, which was unusual. So I then looked a bit closer and I saw it. Snoop had hidden Lady’s bone under his bed! A piece of it was sticking out. I said to him, “Snoopy, I gave you the biggest bone – now let me have Lady’s.” He looked at me as if he understood everything I said, and then he firmly plopped his large paw on the other bone to let me know that it wasn’t going anywhere. I could see he felt strongly about this but I couldn’t let him keep it so I held out my hand. He looked at it and with a disgusted snort he stood up, turned around and let his legs go limp. He had firmly turned his back on me! I had been dissed by my dog. What a stinker. Snoopy was quite a boy – he made us laugh each and every day.

Snoop was suddenly taken ill and we had to say goodbye much too soon. Through my tears I can almost see him in a meadow across the Rainbow Bridge. He and Trey can play and race around like pups with Eagle joining in on the fun. Trey can see again and they are all healthy and happy. Once again we’ve had to let a dearly loved companion go on ahead of us. Make no mistake; we will see them all again someday.