Francis is on the roof. Good-bye to the sweet soul that she was.
At the bottom of this post are some pictures of her with our other dog Henry. They came to us as a set and it's hard to think of her without thinking of them both. His tail naturally curved up, while hers naturally curved down which in a lot of ways summed up their personalities. She was the sweet timid companion to his big forever-puppy personality.
Our youngest and only daughter Amie was 16 when she picked Henry out from a large unwanted litter next door. I insisted we get two so they could play together and keep each other company... "How 'bout that little brown one?"
Henry's name was his from the start, but we called the little girl dog, "Baby" for a long time. In the movie Dirty Dancing, Baby's real name is Francis. That's what we had in mind when we made it official. I never thought it would stick....
Both dogs took great pride in keeping squirrels, cats and mailmen out of the backyard. That was their job and they took it seriously. Francie especially between the two, liked being outside as much as she did inside. She'd energetically bound up the steps, eyes shining when we'd call her in with a late night "c'mon, let's go ta bed." Once in, it was often a race down the hall to see which one of the two dogs could get to the front dog bed first. Nothing particularly better about that spot that I could tell, but the winner always looked smug.
Francis wasn't a lapdog, in fact too much attention always seemed to make her nervous...... unless of course someone had a brush and knew where the itchy spot on her back was. She enjoyed a good scratching about as good as she did anything. Well that and cat poop. Every morning her and Henry liked to go out in the front yard with me to help when I fed the cats. He went around marking all our stuff so that the world would know who owned it and she would head to the spots favorited by cats looking for treasure. I shamed her with how gross that was at least a million times, but she was persistent in her admiration of the stuff.
Our 3 previously wild, currently "porch cats" get along with the dogs for the most part though Francie did have enough run-ins with them to develop a healthy respect. One thing she loved to do was charge the glass door when any of the other neighborhood cats came up on the porch. She seemed to get the biggest kick out of startling and scaring away the "trespassers."
Francis was the most obedient dog I've ever known, anxious almost to a fault to please. A few times over the years she would escape under the house to avoid flea medicine or baths and wouldn't come out. Those times were out of character to the extent that they were amusing and often the subject of Francie stories.
As a young puppy she learned quickly to sit and shake hands, but for years let Henry do the "speaking." A few years ago she finally found her voice and started using it not only to get treats, but also to let us know when she wanted to come back in the house from the backyard. Until then, she either made sure to tag along with Henry who knew to scratch as an alert or she sat patiently on the porch waiting. That's either proof that an old dog can teach themselves a new trick or that she could do those things all along and for some reason in the beginning simply chose not to be so forward.
I'm gonna miss looking out the kitchen window and having my "Sweet Little Brown Dog" raise up from her spot in the sun to catch my eye and come racing to the door.
Good-by Francie Girl.
