Prancer Lucky Twist

The first movie I ever saw in the theater was All Dogs Go To Heaven. I was 3 1/2 years old, and I thought the movie was ridiculous. "I didn't like the movie" I told my mom while leaving the theater. When she inquired why, I told her "because everybody knows, dogs can't talk!"

I now understand fictional cartoons a bit better than my 3 year old self did, but I still hope that all dogs go to heaven. Because I think a lot of us won't go unless our pets come too!

I lost a best friend today. Prancer, our boxer, has been sick since Thanksgiving, and finally just couldn't keep going today. I've been heartbroken over it for some time now - aside from some goldfish (and a short-lived chameleon), Prancer was our only pet, so I've never had to deal with one passing away before. She lived a wonderful life and I think she touched many of us in a positive way that maybe we didn't realize until now. She's only a dog, but one that will never be forgotten. I wanted to share some of my memories here.

Patrick had been asking for a dog for almost a year (Patrick is the persistent one). We'd researched and researched, and decided that Boxers were athletic dogs that my dad would want to run with, they were good with kids, and they seemed like pretty good overall pets. Patrick even went so far as to start praying for a fawn color boxer with a black mask and white paws at the dinner table. We got her for Christmas in 1998. She started crying in her kennel early Christmas morning, waking up Gregory. My mom eventually just brought her upstairs to let us see her. They brought her into my room and I thought she was a puppet until they put her on my bed and she started to move!

I was in the 8th grade, finishing up with that "awkward middle school phase," and I remember wanting to stay up on New Years Eve that year. She slept in my lap while I stayed up to watch the ball drop on TV. (And by the way, how boring is watching the ball drop? Who came up with that idea anyway? Silly.) She was always there for you to cuddle with.

Throughout the years, Prancer has been a friend to everyone who entered our home. She used to be barely able to contain herself, wiggling everywhere when guests would come over. That's how she got her name in the first place, prancing around (and it helped that she was a Christmas pup-we named her after the reindeer!). We initially were going to name her Xena (because she was strong, like the warrior princess show on TV) but Patrick and Gregory couldn't remember her name...so she ended up as Prancer Lucky Twist. "Lucky" was Gregory's idea...I don't know why. Maybe because she was!

We moved to Colorado my sophomore year of high school. We moved about a month before school started, so I didn't have any friends. I would take Prancer for walks around the lake behind our house hoping to make friends. I never made a friend over at Waneka Lake, but Prancer and I shared plenty of good times there. I remember letting her get her feet wet on the shallow water, and watching her pounce on the dirt and sand that floated up from where her paws dug into the shore. One day, I took her to the neighboring lake that had a dock (instead of the shallow water like the other lake did)...Prancer walked right over to the water, touched it with her paw, felt that it was like the other lake, and stepped right on down...except that it was a couple feet deep! She fell in and couldn't hop back out onto the dock. I had to climb into the lake and pull her out! We were both smelly and wet and still had to walk back to our house...half a mile away. We got some funny looks on that walk!

When we moved back to KY after Colorado, we moved into a house that was all hardwood floors. My dad is a little OCD, and had a hard time when Prancer would get excited and her nails would scratch the floors. The solution? Prancer had to wear shoes! Prancer had her very own set of booties that she would wear each day. It was hilarious to watch her initially getting used to the shoes - she would walk around lifting her feet high above her head with each step. She eventually got used to them and actually couldn't hardly get down our stairs without wearing them (with their "no-slip grip" bottoms). Everyone loved to see her with her bright yellow boots!

Prancer was a sweet little dog that will never be forgotten. I'll miss you!

11/9/98-1/4/10