SAYING GOODBYE | THE WIND PHONE

I Held Rigby’s Spirit In My Dream

Rigby joins her bossy big sister and two best friends but paused to say goodbye

Rigby as her diva self. photo by author

Hubs was shocked when Rigby joined our family in 2007. I was shocked he was shocked. He knew Teen and I were off to look at puppies. Who looks at puppies without buying one?

By the time we got home, Rigby had her name. We were listening to Beatles’ music. You can guess what song inspired her name.

We introduced our brand new toy poodle, Rigby, to Pepper, our 13-year-old bossy toy poodle. Pep objected. She was the top dog and not happy with a wiggle-butt interloper. She’d also been dealing with diabetes for over 8 years, which meant 2 insulin shots per day. That’s a whole lot of pokes.

To put it mildly, she was cranky.

Pepper, our silver Toy Poodle with extra fluffy ears, guarding her favorite toys — her blue handball and stuffed hedgehog. Author’s photo.

For the next several months the mere presence of Rigby stirred up Pep’s crankiness. She made it clear, as top dog — there would be no sharing of biscuits, her blue handball, or my lap, especially my lap.