Fancy

We lost one of our dogs Saturday evening. Eler Beth's fox terrier, Fancy, died. She had been doing poorly for about a week now, and I figured she was nearing the end. She suddenly started losing weight. She was 13 years old, so she'd lived a nice, long life, and more than six of those years she'd lived as the favorite dog and soul-mate of my little girl.

Fancy had belonged to a friend of Thomas' who lives on a huge farm in Kentucky. Thomas and Eler Beth had gone to visit one day and to look for fossils in his hills where they wash down after a good rain. Fancy took a "fancy" to Eler Beth and vice versa; she followed Eler Beth around the whole time they were there and wouldn't have anything to do with anyone else. Jim (our friend) said to Thomas, "Looks like you've got a new dog." Thomas said, no, he couldn't take Jim's dog from him, and Jim said, yes he could and that she apparently was Eler Beth's dog and he just insisted we take her. He wouldn't let Thomas pay for her, even though Jim had bought her from a Fiest breeder in Virginia.

Later that summer she bred with another fox terrier and we got four pups out of her -- Scout, my very intelligent and loyal boy; Little Bit, the girl Eler Beth bonded with and kept; and another boy and girl that we gave to Jim.

We'll miss her, and our beagle Heidi will miss her. Fancy and Heidi were very close and even shared a dog house. But I don't think she was in pain. She was alert and loving up to the end; she just wanted to sleep all the time. Eler Beth is handling it very well, and I'm very proud of her.