It has taken me awhile to process and compile some of my favorite pictures for this post. A few weeks ago we had to say goodbye to our sweet boy, Tequila. It has been hard for all of us, especially the girls and they asked for me to write down some of my favorite memories.
I got Tequila when I was one semester shy of graduating at KU. I had only one class left to take (because the Dean wouldn’t let me take Campaigns at the same time as another – ugh). I was in between apartments and was living at my parents’ house while I finished up the class and worked. I had spoken to my Mom and Brother about getting a dog and convinced them to go up to Wayside Waifs to look with me. Ok, it didn’t take much convincing. We were just going to go “look” at what was available. We scanned the aisles, looking at all of the sweet faces and my Mom stopped and said “Oh, he is a sweetie”. There he was this 4 month old lab mix with a white chest, just sitting there with his big brown eyes. All of the other dogs were jumping around, barking and being loud. He just sat there, very sweetly as to say, “pick me, I’m an angel!”
It didn’t take much convincing…all three of us were sold. We filled out the paperwork, got him set up to be neutered and planned to pick him up in a few days. We had to act like nothing was up when we were around my Dad…we wanted it to be a big surprise.
We went back up to Wayside Waifs after he had been neutered and ready to be picked up and he was just as sweet as he was before. We loaded him into the car and headed back to the house. When we pulled in, my Dad was sitting on the front porch with Scooter and we hopped out of the car and yelled “surprise!” He wasn’t that surprised….he pretty much just rolled his eyes at us. Tequila hopped out of the car, went up to where Scooter was drinking from her bowl and bopped her right on the head with his big paw and she splashed right into the water. It wasn’t love at first sight for her, but she grew to tolerate him!
We had never had a large dog before, or one with so much energy, so it was definitely a learning curve for all of us. He would get so wound up, he’d race around the house, knocking things over and just losing it. Grandma (as she was now called) would spray him with the hose to calm him down. Then he would just look at her with his sweet, calm eyes like nothing had happened. We learned a lot together. He was my first baby and first dog on my own. I taught him to sit, but because he didn’t like dog biscuits or peanut butter or any treats, we used Cheez-Its and he got the sitting and shaking hands thing down in no time.
He was very smart, he learned to lock us out of the house by flipping the locks and Grandma taught him how to open up all the cabinets looking for his toy bunnies. His favorite toys were these little bunnies with hats on that we got from the Zona Rosa Easter Parade. He loved all toys and would play and hoard them, but there was something about those bunnies that we ended up dubbing Skanky Bunnies because of how gross they got. Every time we thought he had forgotten about them, he would find them in weird places all around the house.
He had a lot of intricities, he hated treats and peanut butter, he loved to lay on top of the couch and peer out the window like a cat just waiting for me to come home (no matter how long it took). He loved to bother Scooter, chasing her around, bopping her on the head and got his fair share of bites on the butt and tongue when she had had enough.
He was a fast guy who loved to chase bunnies and run full speed into water with his mouth open, and then proceeding to puke up all the water he inhaled in front of the many spectators laughing. He loved going on long walks, running and chasing other dogs at the dog park and laying around in his baby pool at the house. We had so many amazing memories with him and I wanted to share a few of my favorite – or most “Tequila” moments.
I was going to a wedding in the evening and I decided to take Tequila to Shawnee Mission Park to wear out some energy before I went. It was summer, and a pretty hot day but I had left plenty of time to get myself cleaned up after our run. We got to the park and just as we always did, ran straight down towards the lake. He swam and splashed other dogs, living his life. There was a gal that had on a similar outfit as me, wearing a similar hat that started walking back up the hill. I was a little farther away from him than I was earlier and saw him starting to run after the woman that left. I assumed he would turn back around as soon as he realized it wasn’t me and come back down to the lake. I waited a few minutes before stating the hike up to go find him. When I got to the top of the hill I didn’t see him and started to worry. I looked all around the back end of the park and then I saw the lady that he followed and she said “do you have a black lab? He followed me but when he got close, he realized I wasn’t you and he took off toward the exit”. Oh no. I started to panic a bit. I was running around, yelling for him and people stopped me telling me that they had seen him running towards the exit. I was hot, tired, stressed out and super worried. I got up to the big gate that leads into the parking lot and a guy in a truck pulled up and asked if I had a black lab. I said yes and he pointed at my car. I ran closer to the car and yelled “Tequila” and he ran as fast as he could, jumping in my arms and knocking me over. He had been sitting by the door of my car, waiting for me. I cried a bit, laughed a lot and packed him and myself, completely covered in sweat and dirt into the car to go home. From that day on, he never got 10 yards away from me without turning back to make sure that he could still see me. It was a lesson we both learned and never forgot.
He loved to give Brian a hard time at the beginning. He wasn’t so sure of this new person that was taking up some of Mom’s time. The first time he visited Brian’s apartment in Platte City was because of an early morning remote. I had to leave him with Brian to get to work and when I came back Brian looked exhausted and Tequila looked smug. Apparently while I was away, Brian took a shower and left Tequila on the couch. When he got out of the shower he couldn’t find any of his towels, clothes or bath mat. He checked his bedroom, no luck. Then he went out into the living room and Tequila had wrapped himself up in everything and just stared at him, daring him to come get everything. Luckily they learned to respect each other really quickly and enjoyed a lot of walks, chasing birds and getting pup cups whenever they could.
One of the most notorious Tequila stories is one that most people are familiar with. In fact, our vet and all employees past and present were made fully aware of the story. It started with a simple overnight stay at the vet with a dental cleaning. We had just moved into our house, Brian was on a work trip in Texas, my Dad was in England, my brother in Manhattan, KS. My Mom and I had to go down to Arizona to clean up, move out and sell my Grandparents house. We were on a tight turnaround, made even more so when my Mom realized she booked the tickets a day later than we were supposed to be there so we had less than 12 hours to decide what to keep, what to donate and get everything ready. When we got in to Arizona, my grandparent’s van didn’t start and luckily the taxi driver took us to the store to stock up on some food for our visit since the house hadn’t been lived in for several months. We maniacally cleaned, packed, laughed and cried until about 3:30 in the morning before calling it quits to get a little shut eye before getting up in time for the movers and donation truck to arrive at 8am. A little shy of 4:00 am my cell phone rang. It was Dr. Mark, the head veterinarian and the first words out of his mouth were, “We lost Tequila”. I dropped the phone, hysterically crying and my Mom picked it up and demanded more information. All thoughts of something going wrong during the anesthesia or dental procedure crossed our minds, plus we were one barely a half hour of sleep. When he explained that nothing physically had happened to him, he had escaped, we breathed a sigh of relief for a moment. Then Dr. Mark continued…the cops were called at 5 am (3am our time) because all of the alarms went off so they thought someone had broken into the building. When they couldn’t find any wrong doing, they looked at the tapes and saw instead that it wasn’t a break in, it was a break out. Tequila had apparently woken up from the anesthesia in the middle of the night in a holding pen. He managed to open the pen to escape, ran through the room of dogs, pooped on the floor and got out several locked doors of the push out and pull down variety. When he got to the outside door, he triggered the alarms which must have scared him and he ran from the building. That didn’t leave us with much hope because the vet was on a very busy street and they had animal control, vet techs, the City of Olathe Police Department and more out looking for him with no luck. I can’t tell you all that happened over the next few hours but I managed to get a hold of Uncle Mat and a few of my friends to see if they could get out and look for him. I was scheduled to be on a flight the next day but by then, who knew what could happen. All of the movers, the realtor and the donation people heard the story and waited with us to get updates. About 1:00 that afternoon we got a call from my friend’s husband and he had spotted Tequila about a mile and a half away from the vet. He had tried calling for him, but Tequila ran into a neighborhood. My Mom was on the phone with my brother and sent him to the area to try and intercept him. Bless my then-college aged brother, he was rolling through some really nice neighborhoods with his window down calling out “come here little boy” to try and get Tequila’s attention. We were all on the phones coordinating when my friend’s husband spotted him and Mat was in the area. Mat got close enough to get out of the car, he called out to him one more time and Tequila sprinted toward him and leaped into his arms. Cheers and applause erupted from the kitchen in my grandparent’s house as everyone had stopped moving to listen to the action. It was like a moment out of a movie. He was safe, super shaky and extremely exhausted, but Uncle Mat took him home and pampered him until my flight got in the next day. When we called off the search we learned that his escapade was going to cost the vet a pretty penny to replace the doors, locks and alarms but they were very relieved that we found him (and we were relieved not to get that bill!).
Needless to say that was Tequila’s first and last dental appointment and overnight stay. From then on if he needed to be given any anesthesia, we would have to be there the entire time so that when he woke up we were there and he wouldn’t go in a full blown panic. We had a lot of funny drunken puppy moments and the entire vet staff knew us and had to prepare to Tequila-proof the place when we arrived.
When we found out we were pregnant with Bailey, it was Tequila that got to surprise Dad with the news. He was a proud guardian and her best friend from the moment we brought her home. I couldn’t have picked a better big brother for her. He was so patient and gentle with her, even during all of the dress up and extra snuggles. When Sienna came along, he was an old pro with babies and enjoyed as many naps as he could with them. I am so fortunate he was around to meet Hunter and even more thankful that we were able to capture a few pictures with him during Hunter’s newborn session.
Tequila you will be forever missed. You were my first love, my sweet boy. My heart will always have your paw print. I know you are looking after the girls and our newest addition, Bourbon. We hope you are chasing every goose and bunny, eating bacon and cheeseburgers, and getting all the love you deserve. And I know you are giving Scooter and Cody a run for their money over that rainbow bridge. Until we meet again my love, goodnight.
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