04/06/2025
We suffered a heartbreaking loss on Monday as we said goodbye to our girl Panda. Time finally caught up with her. The first time I met Pandy she was staying at a kennel having just come into Fido’s Companion Rescue. She was thin and scruffy looking. I remember saying to her that she would be an easy foster because I wouldn’t get attached to her because she wasn't a dog for me. That was over 13 years ago so I guess she showed me.
Panda was a nervous dog. She did well with people but not well with other dogs. When we brought her home, we had Murphy, Zoey and Jack. Pandy went after all three of them to fight. It was 3 or 4 months before we could trust her alone in a room with any of them. Walking her in a park meant hitting the end of the leash anytime another dog walked past. We kept working and eventually she settled in and she bonded with our other dogs, especially Zoey. Zoey became Pandy’s security blanket and she spent most of her life glued to Zoey.
As we worked with Panda, we discovered her love of playing fetch. She was the dog that convinced us that the Chuck It is one of the greatest inventions of all time. We would take her out back and she’d be bouncing for joy waiting for us to launch the ball. Once we threw it, she would run full speed to get it and then come charging back and drop the ball at our feet to throw it again. She could easily run like this for 30 minutes. Sometimes she dropped the ball farther away from me and I’d tell her “Pandy I can’t reach it”. She’d pick the ball up and then flick her head to throw it to me so it was at my feet. Then she’d start bouncing again waiting for the throw. She was such a smart girl.
Pandy was with us about a year when we decided to adopt her ourselves. We had grown very attached to her. But we were also concerned that if she didn’t get enough exercise and didn’t have the secure feeling that she got from us and Zoey that she would revert to the anxious dog aggressive girl she was before. So Pandy became our gentle sweet girl in a pack full of big pushy knuckleheads.
We always tried to figure what breed mix Pandy was. After we adopted her, we had her DNA tested. When the results came in we anxiously opened the envelope. To our surprise the results showed “no discernable breeds”. There was a very small percentage of several breeds, but Pandy was a true mutt. But she was our mutt.
Thank you to Dr. Sansone and the staff at Forever Friends Pet Hospital for taking such good care of Panda for all these years. Also, thank you to Dr. Parker from A Gentle Farewell for coming to our home to allow Panda to pass away peacefully.
Some of our favorite memories are Pandy running and playing with Zoey and Huller all across our property. We’ll always love you Panda. We miss you so much. Hopefully Zoey was waiting for you on the other side and the two of you are running and playing pain free. Our prayer is that we’ll all be together again someday.
