It's hard to say goodbye.

By Liv

Pepe was my puppy. He had many names: Pepe, Pepperoni, Pepperchini, Peplinksi, Petey-Pablo... just to name a few.

His short life was filled with happiness and love. He brought so much joy to our lives and always made other people laugh with his silly sideways walk and funny little personality.

I'm finding it hard to hold back the feelings of regret, sadness, anger and depression after his death. I really feel like I could have done something differently and none of this would have happened. I can't sleep and every time I close my eyes, I picture him. It's horrible.

My little baby dog. He was always so warm and fuzzy and happy to be around people. All I think about is that he is no longer warm. He is cold and wet and far away from his favorite thing in the world: people. I am so upset by this loss.

My Dad's partner, Sonja, kindly took Pepe back to their house and placed him in his final resting place within my Dad's garden. I wrote him a long letter and told him that I love him, miss him, and I am so very sorry that he is gone. I told him that I wish he knew how much happiness that he brought our family and that Stella keeps crying out his name and crawling towards the foot of the bed at night - looking for him. I placed the letter on the ground above him and gently pushed dirt over it.

When Stella and I arrived in Portland, she was beside herself with excitement when she saw him. Here are some videos that I took just a few days ago of them together. (If you are reading this on facebook, please follow this link to view the videos on my blog)

The chicks go to the garden

This afternoon, we put the chicks in the veggie garden so they could get some sun, peck around, and have a little adventure. I was a little nervous, but it went very well. The chicks followed me around like I'm the mother hen. I had to keep looking down to make sure they weren't underneath me so as not to step on them.

Pepe stayed on the outside of the fence and was very happy to watch his little sisters walk around. He knows that he isn't allowed to get too close to them, so he just sort of laid down and watched from the side lines. He's such a good dog!

Pepe le Puppy

Almost every day, Nick and I look at Pepe and say to each other, "He's so freaking cute." We love him so much! We have been able to train him to stay with us even when he's off his leash, and he really enjoys going with us on long hikes because he can run ahead and check things out. 

We even considered getting another Aussie so that we could have TWO smart/loving/hilarious pups to play with, but we decided that we don't think we'd ever love a dog as much as we love Pep.