A Time for Everything

Shorty
May 16, 1994 - September 12, 2006

aka Short-stuff, Bubba, Buddy, Baby, Pumpkin-Pie

A wonderful dog and a part of our family.
Faithfully waited by the door every day for us to return home.
Loved going on walks until he couldn’t walk anymore.

Favorites

Hide and Seek Hold him still, count to 10, let Amy run and hide, and Shorty would come find her, and was tenacious in his pursuit.

Playing Ball (learned at the age of 8—proof that you can teach an old dog new tricks!)

His ‘babies’ that he never ‘killed’ but sometimes wounded, by ripping out the squeakers.

Kong (hunting cookies, what could be more fun?! Thanks, Allison!)

Sleeping on his back with his feet in the air; or, sleeping with his feet on the wall.

Attacking the ironing board… serious fun with loss of all rational control

Barking whenever the phone rang… certainly proving Pavlov's theory. As a herding dog, Shorty would chase and ‘herd’ any family member when they ran. When the girls were young, they would run to answer the phone when it rang. Soon, the phone ringing became cause for barking, which prompted feeding to quiet him, which prompted more barking, and so on...

Eating - carrots, cucumbers, Cheerios, dog cookies, plums, apples, toast, rice, chicken, anything we ate, and his dog food

Shorty came to live with us in 1995 when Amy, at the age of 9, decided she wanted a pure-bred dog. She asked, "If I save all my money from Christmas, my birthdays, my allowance, whenever I have money, could I buy a Welsh Corgi?" Thinking that there was no way she would save the amount of money required for this breed, we said "Yes, if you save all your money, you can use it to buy a dog."

Amy started looking through the classified section of the newspaper, and found an ad for someone who wanted to sell a Corgi for $100. We went to look at the dog, whose name was Winston. He was 9 months old. The couple who now owned him had acquired him from an elderly couple who had owned this young dog (they'd named Skeeter) from the time he was a puppy. It seems that Skeeter ate a rather good sized rock in their back yard and had to have it surgically removed from his stomach. Believing that he'd probably try the same trick again if he continued living in their home, the elderly couple gave Skeeter to this couple who already owned another Corgi. Well, Winston (formerly Skeeter) and their own Corgi had a wonderful time chasing each other around the back yard all day long, barking and generally having a simply wonderful time! Unfortunately, the husband worked nights and needed to sleep during the day and couldn't stand all the noise... hence, they'd decided to keep their Corgi and find a new home for Winston.

For Amy, it was love at first sight. We went back to pick up Winston, and introduced him at the park to our other dog Buffy. We gave Winston a new name - Shorty. Now at the age of 21, Amy hardly remembers a time when Shorty wasn't with us.

Many people will say that a dog is just a pet. For us, Shorty was part of our family and we will forever miss him.