The Chronicles of Riley- A life well lived

I think every family that has ever had pets at some point has that one dog that just changes your family forever. Riley was that dog for us. We buried him a year and a half ago after living with him for 14 years. We will miss him for the next 14 years I am sure. I told the kids that one day I would write down his stories. He has been gone long enough that I can do it now with fondness and tears but without the grief. I should probably start with how Riley came to be a part of our family.

This actually starts with a box full of kittens and Kenzie's preschool. Someone dropped them off one day and when I went to pick Kenz up- there was one little fluffy white kitten left. I figured every little girl needed a kitten so we brought him home and named him Toby. We watched him like a hawk never letting him outside unsupervised. One day he wandered out the front door for approximately 2 seconds before I followed him out and in that miniscule amount of time he was attacked by a neighborhood cat and got his leg broken. Did I mention we had no money to fix a broken leg on a stray cat? But somehow we managed to cover his vet bill and brought him home to recuperate. Which he did quite quickly. Now I am thinking we rescued him, loved him, and now patched him up- so this cat is going to love us forever and be in love with us. Well he obviously thought differently. I think his thought process was more like- "These people have only had me like a month and they already broke my leg- I am out of here." And he promptly moved next door with our neighbor that had 8 other cats. We would go bring him home every day and he would go right back the first chance he had. This went on for weeks until our egos could not take the humiliation of having to beg our cat to live with us, and we just let our sweet neighbor have him.

So our first attempt at a family pet was a huge failure. Kenzie was not too disappointed by the time we gave up on keeping him, but I felt terrible that her kitty had moved out. We went on for quite some time petless. Then one day I looked out my kitchen window and saw running across the yard of my neighbor across the street (not the cat lady) the cutest puppy I had ever seen. I went out to "investigate" - which is really code for "pet,kiss, and snuggle" and found out he was a long-haired dachshund...and he had brothers and sisters.

I was sold. I knew this would be the redemption for the runaway cat. We packed Kenzie up and headed out to the farm where these puppies were waiting. When we arrived, the puppies and their mom were all in a chain link kennel in the front yard. We asked where the dad was and were told he always escaped the fence and they didn't know where he was right at the moment. -You know when you read a book and there is this little detail you read and realize it's important- you're not sure why but you know it is? Well this was one of those details that I should have picked up on at the time. It was a foreshadowing of life that lay ahead. -

We knew we wanted a boy and there was only one little boy left- so we scooped up this cute little bundle of red fur and black eyes and took him home to live right across the street from his brother, Griff. That was the beginning of our life with Riley.