Man's (or Woman's) Best Friend

I posted about our addition of a Australian Shepherd puppy, Duke and our Chocolate Lab, Cocoa, in a previous post. We have had Cocoa for 7 years this Thanksgiving. We made a trip to my parents for Thanksgiving and had to leave Cocoa here. She likes to run our place but is very good about staying on our property (or within a very close proximity). She always comes back and stays right here when we are gone. I think she feels it necessary to protect everything while we're not here. When we lived in Nebraska, we were right on a highway. She got hit (sideswiped) by at least one car while we were there. She became very skittish about the road, cars, etc. for a while, but eventually that eased up and she began to venture out again.

After we moved back to Texas, she did okay. When we first moved to our place outside of town, I would find her about a half mile from the house. I would roll down the window of the car, yell at her to get home and then it was a race to see if she could beat me home! We think she probably got brushed by a vehicle again as she stayed away from the road and vehicles again. We live on a fairly busy highway between Canyon and Amarillo. She chased cars for a while when she was younger (in Nebraska - that's how she got hit the first time) but hadn't done that in a long time. She loved playing with Duke - once she got over a new puppy being here! They would wrestle and jump and roll around in the grass when we put them together. They were both oblivious to everything and everyone when they were playing. When Cocoa got tired, she would just run away and knew that Duke could not follow as we had him on a leash.

When we got home on Sunday night of the Thanksgiving weekend, we could not find her. We yelled and searched all around the place. It didn't look like she had eaten much food, so I was concerned but it was after 10. We went to bed, got up on Monday morning and prepared to pick up Duke from the kennel, where we had to leave him for the weekend. Yes - you're correct - I saw Cocoa about a mile from the house on the side of the road, where she had been hit. I called my husband in tears to let him know and then had to go home and tell my 17 year old son and call our daughter. I dreaded having to tell both of them as Cocoa has been a part of our family for several years.

She was a good dog, had 2 litters of beautiful puppies and was faithful to the very end. I think she must have wondered where Duke was, when she wandered off. I truly hate that she was alone on a highway when she died. To the driver - I am so sorry. I would be so distraught to know I had hit someone's pet and I hate to think of someone else having to deal those emotions. To our dear sweet Cocoa - you were a beautiful, faithful friend and are missed!