Froggy
~2000-2009

This morning when I left the house I stepped over Lauren, who had her arms wrapped around her best friend Froggy, carrying on a one-sided conversation with the pug. It was the last image I had of Froggy alive. About 2:30 this afternoon I got a call from Kate. She told me that we had a situation. I wondered if one of the kids had flooded the bathroom again or something of that nature. I wish. All of the kids had been playing in the front yard, Froggy included. A man who had been landscaping a yard in our neighborhood drove by in his dump truck, and Frog gave chase. Kate was in the house when she heard all the kids burst in screaming that Froggy was dead. They had witnessed Froggy getting crushed under the tires of the truck.

I won’t sicken you with the gory details, but it was a sight that I wish the kids hadn’t seen. By the time I got home a couple of my neighbors had carefully cleared up the remains of the dog and placed them in a box, which I took to the animal control office.

As you might imagine, Whitney and Bean took it the hardest. Whit was hysterical. Bean was more subdued, but has been walking around the house all evening asking “Where’s my doggy?” and repeatedly declaring that “Froggy got hurt by the truck” and “Froggy is with Jesus.” It wasn’t until I heard Bean talking like this that I lost it.

Kate has also taken it pretty hard. She feels responsible for letting Froggy be out front in the first place. As the dog’s eyesight worsened, we tried to be more diligent about not letting her go out front. She became more agitated about diesel trucks, and still chased them. We had done a pretty good job of keeping her inside, but with the nice weather, and the kids going in and out of the house and the back yard, it was inevitable that she would get out.

We had tickets to go see ‘UP’ tonight, and I felt as though it was wrong to go to a movie on the day that the kids’ dog was killed. But I also thought that maybe it would help get the kids’ minds off of what they had seen. What I didn’t know is that dogs play a major part in ‘UP’. Kate cried throughout, Patrick broke down, and after the show Whitney lost it.

I was wondering what we were going to do about Bean. I wasn’t sure how we were going to get her to bed without her ‘pillow’. After the movie we came home and started to get the kids ready for bed. Bean had disappeared, and I found her asleep in the corner of the couch, the same spot where Froggy always slept while waiting for the kids to go to bed.

Froggy was about as good of a dog as anyone could ask for. She never had accidents and was always well behaved. The only thing she ever wanted was to be loved, and the best thing that ever happened to her was when Bean took an interest in her. Bean would sit for hours at a time, just petting and talking to Froggy. She will be sorely missed.

To give you an idea of how great she was, I have to be a little graphic and I apologize. A few weeks ago Bean got sick. One morning during the illness I walked into Bean and Whitney’s room to discover that Bean’s pull-ups had failed during the night, and the bed was covered with diarrhea. I bathed Lauren while Kate stripped the bed. A few minutes later I noticed that Frog had also been pooped on. She just sat in the corner, unconcerned about her soiled state. So while Kate dressed Bean I gave Froggy a bath of her own. That night I put the kids in bed and went down to gather Froggy from her spot on the couch. She looked up at me and drooped her ears, as if to ask “Are you serious?” But she dutifully got up and walked upstairs and into the bedroom. I figured that she might opt not to sleep in Bean’s bed that night. But when I checked on everyone before retiring, I found her snuggled up next to the Bean.