Remembering Quincy

We are remembering our beloved friend, Quincy Bahbah Rahrah Whohaha Pickle Freeman tonight. We found him this evening lying peacefully by the fence out back as we were buttoning up the house for the night. He was last seen this afternoon.

Quincy was born on July 19, 1999. Our friends the Bennions had the litter and Kurt wanted a dog. We got Quincy in August and he spent the first several nights in the bathtub. He was a tiny guy then!

Quincy grew bigger than we expected him to. We learned a bit later that Labradors (which Quincy was a pure-bred) are descended from Newfoundlands and every once in a while a more classic-sized Lab would pop up. Quincy was one of those. Unfortunately his size was a detrement to him. We knew we might not get to keep him as long as we otherwise might. Quincy turned nine this year.

Quincy will be missed for being our favorite throw rug. He always found that perfect spot on the kitchen floor where we were sure to trip on him when we were making dinner. We'll miss his enthusiastic willingness to come in and clean up the morsels the kids had dropped. We called him Hoover (like the vacuum, get it?) for that.

I appreciate Quincy's gentleness with our children. When Melissa was little I remember a day when she was crawling over Quincy and around him and over him again. He let her do all her climbing and when he had had enough, simply rolled her off of him by shifting himself to his side, then got up and walked away. I know he knew what he was doing. Otherwise he'd have just stood up and let her fall to the floor. She was more important to him than that.

As the girls took in the news, we talked about where Quincy is now and I was able to tell them I felt strongly that their Grandma Evans is tending to his needs. She was such a dog lover ~ I've always thought she was needed to run the Animal Shelter in heaven and that's the assignment she received when she got there. Should all of that be true, Quincy is in great hands.

Quincy died with a very long name. A name he aquired throughout his lifetime. Our good friend Bridger, when he was very small, called Quincy "bahbah" or "rahrah" and soon that stuck. The "whohaha" matched and was stolen from Finding Nemo. One year I came back from Girls Camp singing the Pickle Song, which seemed to make Quincy dance. Just the word 'pickle' Quincy seemed to love. This was his nickname from then on. So he died Quincy Bahbah Rahrah Whohaha Pickle Freeman. I wonder how we're going to fit all of that on his headstone. Funeral services are pending.

We will miss him!