Don't get out your hankies, you're not going to need them

The pictures and the descriptions are all completely genuine. It's really hard to be snarky when you're remembering a departed pet. That applies even to me. When I remember Skipper, I don't think about how he used to disappear for days at a time and come back having rolled in the foulest smelling stuff in the city. Where did he find that foul stuff? I realize that the natural next question is ...and what was it?... but I don't want to know.

What I remember is a night when the two cats and the dog were sitting gathered around an armchair. Fred and Rox were on the arms and Skipper was in front of it. At one point, Skip got too close for Fred's liking, so Fred reached out with his paw and batted Skipper across the snout.

Skip's reaction was priceless. He seemed to be saying "Hey! You're a cat! And you batted my snout! That's not right!"He had a very expressive face, like all good Border Colllies do. Skip smiled a lot. He laughed; and he cried some, too.

For his part, Fred stayed where he was and looked very smug for having successfully batted the dog. Ah, sweet victory. I am not sure Rox notice that anything happened. She would never have considered batting a dog's snout.

They are all gone now. Fred went first in late 1986 under the wheels of a car on a Sunday morning. Skip was next in 1993, I think. He finally got into a fight with somebody bigger than him--a coyote. Rox died two years ago of complications from renal failure.

After they were gone, I was without pets for a long time.

Each of them was excellent in his own way. Fred was a great bully who once made an attempt on my dad's life; Rox was a great hunter, even if she never could figure out how to get down from the roof; and Skip was a dog's dog who liked nothing more than to bark at the mailman.

So you see, it is possible to pay tribute to your departed pets without getting overly sentimental.

before - after