#44

SHELBY

   November 3rd will always be a tarnished day in the lives of the Frescura's. Two years ago today was the day we had to say goodbye to our best friend, favorite family member and our only family pet that made it in our house for over a year. We were blessed to have Shelby in our lives for fourteen and a half years and were given so many good memories from her actions.

HOW IT ALL STARTED
   I had always wanted a dog from the time i could speak i was asking for a puppy. But my parents had always said no until one great trip to Florida. On the way home my mom and I were sitting in the backseat watching homeward bound and crying hysterically, by the time the movie was over my mom had agreed to getting a dog. Shortly after we brought Shelby home from wapool island. Yes that's right Shelby was a native American.

   Shelby brought us so much joy and made us laugh so much, we were always laughing at something she did. There are so many memories and good stories that I could write forever about her but I will just give you the highlight reel to Shelby Yasmeen Steve Blackie Stinkasours Snooter Frescura's life. (She had lots of names, Dad used to get really mad when we changed it to a boys name like the month we called her Steve.)

SHELBY'S TOP 10

10.  If you knew Shelby you knew she was a little... neurotic?! She thought she was a person who hated dogs. I took her to the dog park once thinking it would be good for her. When we got to the park she jumped out of the car excited until she realized this was a park for dogs, she turned around walked back to the car and sat by the door waiting to leave. She wouldn't move from the parking lot.

9. When Shelby was 2 or 3 we took a family day and went to the beach near grand bend. We brought our lunch and air mattress for the water and went swimming. It was so hot that we all spend most of our time in the water as did Shelby. She actually spend so much time in the water using her tail as a router when she swam that we thought she had broke her tail. And again it was another expensive trip to the vets.

8. When my parents had the cottage in grand bend it was really hard to keep Shelby out of the lake seeing as she was a water dog afteral. On a Sunday night when we were packing up to leave Shelby took off and made a mad dash to the lake. When we finally got her out of the lake she was so smelly, dirty and full of sand we made her ride in the back of the truck on the way home. Again if you knew Shelby you knew she was totally spoiled. So after a few minutes of riding in the back of the truck down the highway Shelby decided she had enough of that and decided to climb though the back window and into the cab of the truck, shaking to dry off and sending lake water and sand all over everyone and everything.

7.  Dan and I had been watching Shelby and staying at mom and dad's for a bit while they were away. Stupid us left a snickers bar on the kitchen counter and Shelby decided she would help herself. Well needless to say she had an upset stomach and pooped ALL over the house, every tile on the main floor had a present from her and to make it worse she slipped and fell in it. And to make Dan feel like a real member of the family she even pooped right in his shoe.

GROSS!

6. As Shelby got older her eyesight and hips were starting to go. This made it very difficult for her to get outside down the steps. Dad came up with a great idea and build Shelby a ramp off of the patio door. It worked great and even had rubber matting for extra grip and hand rails (not sure what the point of that was) Only problem was my mom couldn't walk down the handicap ramp. She would always slip, slide and even fall. The best part of it was Dad refused to remove the ramp... As long as Shelby used the ramp it was staying.

5. A sad day was when Shelby had a stroke. Dad had left to do some things in Windsor when Shelby had her first stroke. My mom, sister and I were all crying and laying with her thinking this was the end. Shelby couldn't drink, eat, walk or even stand. Just as Dad had reached Windsor we called him and told him he needed to come home right away that we couldn't even get Shelbs to stand. My Dad drove home in record time and came down to Shelby's room. As soon as she saw my dad, She got up and walked over to him. Something that the three of us had been trying to get her to do for the last few hours. She had a drink of water as per my dads request and even went outside for a pee. It was either a miracle or that dog loved my father so much nothing could come between them... Including my mother.

4. When Cassandra was working at JD's in Grand Bend, she was left with the responsibility of watching Shelby for the weekend. Cassandra took Shelb's downtown for a walk and a swim and even stopped off to get her an ice cream cone. My parents were remodeling the cottage at the time and had just laid down new flooring, hanging the drywall on the addition, putting up new curtains and many many other upgrades. When Cassandra left for work that night she left Shelby behind at the cottege thinking the dog would sleep all night being so tired from her big day. But that was a big mistake. Shelby had seperation anxity. And when Cassandra closed the door behind her all hell broke lose. Shelby went crazy, She chewed and tore apart everyhing she could in the few hours Cassandra was gone. Shelb's literally ripped up the new flooring, placed holes and scratch marks in all the drywall, took out a few screens and drapes. Needless to say my dad was a little upset.

3. When Shelby was a puppy the family went to Windsor for the day. We had the neighbour come over and feed her and let her out. When we got home my sister and I ran downstairs to let Shelbs out of her room but she wasn't there. Worried my dad called out her name and we could hear her barking. She was in the house, We followed the barking and it sounded like it was coming from her room, again we looked in her room but no Shelby. Standing there trying to figure this out, the closet door moved. Shelby had chewed, clawed, ate her way though the wall to get out of her room and ended up in a tiny closet.

 2. After spending a few weeks in Europe with my family I was asked to watch Shelby till my parents came home a few weeks later. On the eve of there return I went to my apartment to check on a few things and when I came back to my parents there was a oh henery bar on the mat at the front door, not giving it too much thought I picked it up and moved on, and then I noticed another oh henry bar, and another and another. There was a trail of chocolate bars all the way downstairs to the storage room. I followed the trail with Shelby jumping and running circles around me. It was once I noticed the Costco size bag of chocolate bars laying empty on the floor, I had put two and two together and realized that Shelby had ate almost the whole bag. Long story short I had to rush her to the emergency vets. The vet kept her over night putting her on an IV and giving her doggie epicak. My parents were due back home the next day by 1p.m. I knew if that dog was not there when my dad pulled into the drive way I was dead. The next morning I called the vet getting the good news that Shelby would be ok, and the fact that she ate half of the chocolate bars without taking the wrappers off is why she was still alive. I was allowed to pick her up anytime after 12pm. I raced to the other end of town grabed the dog and raced home fighting traffic the whole way. I pulled in the drive way got in the house and then heard my parents pull in. I quickly sprayed the dog with perfume and took the bandage off her arm from where they drew blood. I opened the front door and she ran out into my fathers arms. Phew everyhing was ok :).... Then my dad pointed out Shelbys leg was shaved from where they put her IV. OOPS!

1. SHE FRAMED US!
My mother always makes the best chocolate mocha cake, It's the go to cake for our family. My mom had baked one for a work event the next day. It was late at night so she covered the cakes with plastic wrap and left them on the counter to cool overnight. The next morning Cassandra and I were awaken to my mother YELLING for us to get our #$*& @&^$% out of bed and get into the kitchen. Sleepy we walked downstairs to where my mother was yelling and cursing. (I'm going to replace swear words with the word puppy.) Standing in the kitchen we noticed most of the cakes my mom had left to cool were eaten. Shocked my sister and I looked at eachother while my mom went on asking "which one of you puppy kids ate my cake? Now I have no puppy cake to bring into work today! I can't puppy believe this! Don't just stand there which one of you puppys ate it?" Cassandra and I stared and pointed at eachother shocked that the other had ate moms cake. after both of us had denied touching her cake, we examined it closer. On inspection we noticed that not only was there cake missing but someone had eaten through the plastic wrap and there appeared to be claw marks in the cake as if to pull it closer to the edge of the counter. It was the dog who ate the puppy cake ;)