We called it her kickstand..

We think she did it so she could be comfortable but all she had to do is stand up and she was already taking a step forward.

You know Kylie, always ready for action!

We drove around in “The Hills” for hours to get the perfect shot of Kylie under the big sign!

She was one crazy customer (and noisy)!

In Jersey we moved from Edison to Lawrenceville, and on the first evening I was making dinner in the new condo I got a surprise. Kylie hopped up on some boxes in the dining area, put her paws up on the service window looking into the kitchen, which putting her face about a foot from what was cooking. She had a big grin on her face like she had found the best place ever to play peek-a-boo, so I laughed and of course gave her a bite of what I was preparing because she was just so darn cute! So the next day when she hopped up there again, looking cute again, she got a cookie, and just like that she had trained us. So we put her customized, indoor dog house (we’ll have to tell you about that later) under the window in the dining room to give her access to the service window, put her cookie jar on the ledge, and presto.. The Cookie Bar was born!

We would tell her, “go to the cookie bar,” and she would run over, hop up put her pretty paws on the window and wait for her treat. Of course then she started to take the initiative and run over there, hop up, tap her pretty paws, a little insistently and request a treat. Then of course that became her m.o. when company would arrive, “Oh, hello, nice to see you! Now go to the bar and give me a cookie!” And then, it became the only way you could apologize to her, whether you offended her on purpose by giving her a bath; or on accident by stepping on her tail or something. She would go straight to the cookie bar!

You can see how that first cookie bar in NJ went from plain to fancy. Then everywhere we moved after that, a location for the cookie bar had to be immediately established…

..until that is, we moved into this house that has a tiny kitchen but a big back yard. Once Kylie saw that big yard there was no looking back, she no longer needed a cookie bar, she had her Own BACK YARD!! I think we actually missed having The Cookie Bar more than she did, But don’t worry, she still got plenty of cookies!

There were always plenty of other dogs around but Kylie, especially in her backpack always attracted attention. One of the things we miss the most is being around little miss congeniality and the life of the party! But really, we just miss everything about her.

You are the sunshine of my life
That’s why I’ll always be around,
You are the apple of my eye,
Forever you’ll stay in my heart

I feel like this is the beginning,
Though I’ve loved you for a million years,
And if I thought our love was ending,
I’d find myself drowning in my own tears

You are the sunshine of my life,
That’s why I’ll always stay around,
You are the apple of my eye,
Forever you’ll stay in my heart

You must have known that I was lonely,
Because you came to my rescue,
And I know that this must be heaven,
How could so much love be inside of you?

__

We think she thought ‘why would I want that little thing when we have this great big couch in the living room’. Then gradually she figured out, ‘hey, this is just my size and I don’t have to share’!

She loved that couch!

You know how you can hold a small dog with their back against you like a baby, or cradled in your arm like a baby? Well, we could do that with Kylie and then hold things out to her and she would hold them in her hands. The best example was a q-tip, and I have no idea how we figured this out or why we did it the first time but it was amazing! She would hold one end of the q-tip between her paw/hands and bring the other end to her mouth and chomp on it then take it back out of her mouth and look at it.

You could even throw her ball to her like that and she would catch it – not in her mouth, with her hands! Then she would bring it to her mouth IN her hands! Just crazy, and so funny!

And she was a very good girl! The presents would accumulate under the tree for weeks and she would leave them alone, even when home alone, even when they had yummy aromatic treats inside. Then on christmas eve we would sit down around the tree and start handing her gifts and she would go to town!

She would even act interested in the collars and clothes momentarily before moving on to tear into the toys and treats! Then on christmas morning, she would dive head first into her stocking and not come out until she was sure it was empty!

And just like everything else, our enjoyment came from watching Kylie experience and enthusiastically enjoy it all! Thank you for that, Kylie. We love you, we miss you, we wish you a merry christmas.