The only time we ever took a trip without Kylie was to go home and visit Hawaii (stupid quarantine kept her from being able to go). But of course she never saw the inside of a kennel.. she always stayed with friends, or they stayed with her.

On one such occasion, we went to the Aloha state and Kylie stayed with her godmom, Merrianne, and her best frien-emy Min. Merrianne was kind enough to send us a few emails with pictures of their adventures while we were away. Of course we were always thrilled to get these, but almost every time we would be shocked at what we saw..

Ok, well this one is shocking for obvious reasons, but as long as she’s having fun and she doesn’t look like that when we get home, then fine.

Clearly in this one she was having fun, however historically Kylie was borderline terrified of balloons, or at least highly suspicious. And ps, she wasn’t a big fan of bandanas either so at this point we were starting to get pretty suspicious ourselves.

Then came this one..

To which we said, “Alright.. who’s that dog, and what have you done with Kylie?!”

It was common knowledge that Kylie did not like other dogs in general, and Golden Retrievers in particular were to be avoided at all cost (see also, The Boston Incident).

We briefly considered booking an early flight home, clearly they were brain-washing our Kylie!! But again, it was clear she was having a good time. [Truth be told we were considering coming home early because Kylie was having too much fun with out us!]

We still talk about these pictures when we see them and contemplate why she would be such a different dog when she was not around us… hmmm. Still don’t know.

But we still miss her like crazy, and hope like crazy that she is having a good time without us now.

Happy Birthday, Beautiful Girl!

We’ve mentioned how much Kylie loved a road trip, it was absolutely our favorite family thing. But you may not be aware that she was quite the prolific little traveler.

The Travel Logs on Kyliedog.com is one of the most exciting parts of her website, where she shares all about her coast to coast excursions. From autumn in New England to sunny California, she visited natural wonders, historical landmarks, and roadside oddities, she loved nothing more than sniffing out new territory (and new hotel rooms).

There’s a pin on the map for every little point of interest along the way.. after all, life’s about the journey, and getting there is half the fun, and all that good stuff!

What was interesting is how often the people gathered at these popular tourist attractions acted like Kylie was the attraction. On Fremont Street in Las Vegas people just couldn’t get over the little dog in the backpack, “look at the dog!” “hey look, there’s a dog!” “omg, look how cute that dog is!” At a truck stop once she was cruising around in her sunglasses and somebody asked if they could take her picture!

We realized at some point that starting Kylie’s website and blog was one of the best things we ever did. It gave us incentive to go on trips and take lots of pictures, and to take absolutely every opportunity to make our life together a series of little adventures!

And it truly was.. we miss those adventures and Kylie’s spirit of adventure every day!

Traditionally as you may know, we were a hockey family. Kylie was a Devils fan, even more specifically she was a Martin Brodeur fan! 

But we are also an american family, so of course when it was super bowl sunday we would watch along with the rest of the country. Of course even the super spectacle couldn’t keep Kylie’s attention for the whole game.

But, one super bowl sunday we just happened to be in Boston with Kylie on one of our road trips, and the Patriots just happened to be playing.  And we just happened to tune in from our New England hotel room in time to hear the other team, not sure who it was, maybe the Rams, all be introduced individually as usual. Then the announcer said something like, and now, “choosing to be introduced As A TEAM.. the New England Patriots.” We thought that was pretty cool! So while we previously had no dog in that fight (ha, ha), we decided to root for the home team! (Of course now, nobody gets introduced as individuals because it would make them look like jerks I suppose. But we still know who started it..)

It was a pretty exciting game as we recall. At some point we girls were high-fiving an especially thrilling play and Kylie decided to get in on the action and started jumping up between us. So, while we rarely attempted to officially “teach” her anything because we wanted her to be a free spirit, we put up our palms and when she put her little paw up too we said, “High Five!” and “Yay, Kylie!” And that was all it took.. Kylie became a high-fiver! (yes we know, lots of dogs know how to high-five. but not lots of them teach themselves in a situation that is so apropos.)

So while Tom Brady was becoming the youngest quarterback to ever win a super bowl that day, Kylie was becoming a high-fiving fool. And while he was MVP in the big game, she was always and will always be our MVP!

So since then, whenever the Patriots make it to the super bowl, they’ve got our support, including today! Go Patriots! Go Kylie! (high-five implied)

[Note: As retired sports fans we have experienced the heartbreak, and the agony of defeat, that can come along with that. So if the Patriots don’t win today, well we all just have to be good sports about it. Although admittedly, good sportsmanship was not Kylie’s strong suit! 😉 ]

Time goes by so fast.. and it never comes back. Of the 7,000 plus pictures we have of Kylie this is perhaps my favorite sequence. It captured a moment of pure joy, exuberance, and Kylie-ness..  (click on the thumbnails for a larger image)

And then the moment was gone..

We haven’t had a moment of pure joy, exuberance, and Kylie-ness in three years now. We can only look back and try to remember those moments as time keeps rushing by.

Thank you, Kylie, for giving us so many happy moments, hours, days to remember!

We miss you so much.

We started a holiday tradition early on.. Christmas Cards with Kylie’s picture. One of the first ones was in a Santa suit, which Kylie oddly loved to wear, she wore that thing ’til June! So we decided to take a picture of Kylie in the Santa suit and put it on a photo Christmas card. We made a comment when we were making plans for the photo shoot, ‘wouldn’t it be great if we had one of those fake fireplaces they use in school plays and such.’ Then I think that same week we went to garage sales and guess what we found… One of those Fake Fireplaces they use in school plays and such!! It was made out of styrofoam and cost $2, and it was amazing! And so were the pictures, everybody loved them, ‘Where in the world did you get a fireplace for the background?! (we were in Hawaii remember.) So a tradition was born!

We would start in october-ish trying to think of a cute idea..  reindeer antlers, wrapped in christmas lights, cuddling on the couch with the grinch, etc.

Part of the tradition was stamping each card with her actual paw print. This was not Kylie’s favorite part of the process,  but we explained to her that it made the cards more personal; plus she got lots of treats on card stamping day! So she was generally pretty cooperative.

We would also use the photo from the annual christmas card in that year’s Hallmark ornament (they do one every year for ‘the family dog’ with the year on it, that you can put a picture in). Just another family christmas tradition that over the years gave us a tree full of Kylie ornaments.

Eventually Kylie’s christmas cards got more sophisticated, with professional photos and real cards that fold (not just the printed photo kind).  But they never lost their charm, or Kylie’s paw print, or the significance of the tradition.

If you’re lucky, the holidays are for forming happy family traditions. We miss ours so much.

No matter how bad things seem, it’s still important to be thankful for all that you have. In our case, we are mostly thankful for all that we had…

We are thankful for the 15 years we spent with the most amazing creature.

Thank you, Kylie, for the adventures, for the laughs, for the love.

Now we are so very thankful for all those memories…

We miss you, Kylie.

Just last week I got an email from a long-lost email pal:

..wondered how you and everyone’s favorite wonder dog were doing,  imagine my sadness to discover that she passed on nearly 3 years ago…i am so sorry for your loss.  i know you loved her dearly (and how could you not…her cuteness and personality were overwhelming just in pictures, so i can only imagine how much more so it was in person).  i’m having fun looking through the pictures on “two girls and a dog” and can really see how much joy and love kylie brought to your lives.

i have a bumper sticker on my car that says, “i didn’t rescue my cat, my cat rescued me.” sounds like the same could apply to you guys (replacing “cat” with “magical wonder dog” of course).  🙂

i have a son now, a 17-month-old firecracker..  his favorite word at the moment is “puppy”, so we’re looking at the pictures of kylie together.

i like to think i’m raising another fan to keep kylie’s memory alive.
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It was so sad & wonderful to receive this thoughtful message, and to be reminded that Kylie touched the lives of so many people. And especially wonderful to know there will be a whole new generation of the Kylie club!

We miss her so much, every single day, she made our lives full and happy, she made most every day an adventure. We really had no choice but to share her and her shenanigans with the world, its bittersweet to know that so many others miss her too.

I want to live where soul meets body
And let the sun wrap its arms around me
And bathe my skin in water cool and cleansing
And feel, feel what its like to be new

Cause in my head there’s a greyhound station
Where I send my thoughts to far off destinations
So they may have a chance of finding a place
where they’re far more suited than here

And I cannot guess what we’ll discover
When we turn the dirt with our palms cupped like shovels
But I know our filthy hands can wash one another’s
And not one speck will remain

And I do believe it’s true
That there are roads left in both of our shoes
But if the silence takes you
Then I hope it takes me too
So brown eyes I hold you near
Cause you’re the only song I want to hear
A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere

Where soul meets body
Where soul meets body

And I do believe it’s true
That there are roads left in both of our shoes
But if the silence takes you
Then I hope it takes me too
So brown eyes I hold you near
Cause you’re the only song I want to hear
A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere

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From the first time we heard it, this song was always all about Kylie for us. She isn’t just a our soul mate, she was our combined souls, embodied.

We did however, sometimes change the lyrics to be even more Kylie-appropriate.. “A melody LOUDLY ROARING through my atmosphere.”

Back in the mid 90’s Kylie was possibly one of the first, or certainly among the first dogs to have a website. Looking back it was nothing to brag about, but she went a long way from there. Kyliedog.com became fairly ginormous, featuring her travel logs, her blog, interactive games and things, and even her very own News Network, KNN, reporting on important issues like Canine Discrimination and Squirrel Conspiracies! But the most famous / infamous part of Kylie’s website is the Psychic Puppy Network.

We were trying to think of something to make Kylie’s site unique, because by then lots of dogs were copy-catting Kylie and getting websites of their own. The Psychic Puppy Network was launched.. with The Great Kylini’s Magic Dog Biscuits, Past Life Regression, and online Tarot Card Readings, it became Kylie’s claim to fame.

I don’t remember what came first or in what order things took place but the Psychic Puppy Network started getting international acclaim. It was featured in a few newspapers across the country. It was a featured site on USA Today’s website, and on Seventeen magazine’s website. It received 4 out of 5 stars when reviewed by Access Magazine. Penn & Teller even linked to the Psychic Puppy Network from their website for quite awhile.

It was also a topic of conversation on several different radio stations in the US. In fact for weeks one radio station was calling “The Great Kylini” once a week (very early in the morning) for lucky numbers!

Then Kylie hit the big time.. TV, in both the US and Great Britain!In 1999 she was on the tele on London’s “So Graham Norton” show as part of a regular segment about wacky things on the internet. Then in 2000 Kylie did a LIVE interview via webcam for the TechTv (now the G4 network) program, “The Internet Tonight”!

Eventually, the excitement wore off and the internet moved on to dancing hamsters, and bulldogs who ride skateboards, and the like. And Kylie, well she was just Kylie.. unaffected by the love and adoration of the masses. She just loved her life and loved us, celebrity was inconsequential.

But for those of you who just thought Kylie was your typical, little white dog (though somewhat extra smart and sassy and cute), you should know she really was a super star – and not just to us!

Ok, this one definitely gets filed under “bad parenting”… once in awhile we would take Kylie to Petsmart or Petco.

So far that sounds normal, right? Everybody takes their pet to Petsmart, however we were going in for a very specific agenda.. Kylie’s anti-reptile agenda!

We would go in and maybe look at some toys or treats, then casually stroll over to the birds, or the fish, on our way to The Lizzards!! Sometimes, if they were well camouflaged she wouldn’t even see them at first. It’s like she was a t-rex and her vision was based on their movement. And inevitably they would move, and eventually they would dart at her from behind the glass, and Kylie would launch her counter strike! She would lunge at the glass snarling and bearing her teeth, the hair on her back standing up (we called that her dorsal fin), carrying on like she was ready to eat ’em for a snack.

Sometimes if said attack was a little too loud we would have to quickly snatch her up and shuffle her away from the scene of the crime and pretend to be innocently shopping for stain remover or something. But Kylie would always be very pleased with herself.

Then she would try her intimidation tactics on the gerbils or ferrets but she did not seem to get the results she was looking for there.. they just ignored her. Which she seemed to think was just rude!

Come to think of it, Kylie seemed to have issues with other reptiles as well..

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