Goodbye Quinn

Well, 2017 started off rough as we had to put our oldest dog Quinn down yesterday. She’d lived a long life of over 16 years and fortunately didn’t go through the cancer issues that her sister did 2 years ago, but it still sucks. It sucks saying goodbye to a good friend and it sucks seeing someone you know age. It’s hard making that choice too. Is it too soon, is her quality of life diminished enough to justify this decision, are we being selfish keeping her around a little longer? Lots of questions; questions you don’t really get to make with people. If she was a person, she’d be in a home, just waiting to die, getting visits from us on the weekends, if we weren’t too busy, but maybe I’m more of a pessimist in that regard.

Such a sweetie!
Such a sweetie!

I remember when I first met Quinn and Harley, 2 sisters that Mrs. SSC rescued from the streets of Chicago 15 yrs ago. It was my first visit to Mrs. SSC in Chicago after our internship and we’d gotten back to her apartment, a nice 3rd floor walkup, and as she opened the door there was a ton of barking and 2 dogs jumping up on me wanting to know who the new person was in their place. They were a great pair of dogs but they couldn’t be more dissimilar. Harley had the nickname dingo because she looked and acted like one of the crazy hyenas from Lion King, and Quinn was a cuddler and a “soft whore” always looking for the next best soft spot in the house to lay on.

Harley, the crazy quiet dingo.
Harley, the crazy quiet dingo.

I remember when we tried to save money and shave them ourselves in Mrs. SSC’s apartment one summer. Harley worked out fine, except she got these “racing stripes” down her back that never seemed to grow right again, adding more weight to her hyena personality, and Quinn… Oh Quinn… The 5″ of fur that we tried to take of of her started to pile up, float around the apartment, and bog down the clippers and we weren’t even halfway through shaving her. Once we finally finished, we vowed to never try that again and stayed successful, until that point where she didn’t handle the groomers well anymore. Then I gave her a couple of hand trim shaves at home, but it’s way easier when you have a yard and aren’t trimming her inside a small apartment.

She never did seem to recover well after the loss of her sister 2 years ago. They’d been together since birth and after Harley was gone, she just seemed to be more distant. Not wanting pets as much, not wanting to snuggle as much, and kind of distancing herself from the family. Lola helped some, but it probably wasn’t the same. They played well and got along well the first year, but after that, even Lola was too much for Quinn. Getting old sucks.

Lola, the new queen of the castle
Lola, the new queen of the castle

Of the two, Harley was definitely my favorite, but Quinn, was definitely the cuddler. I’ll miss having her come up to me looking to get petted and snuggling in to hang out. I’ll miss her bouncing around on those rarer days that the temperature gets cold and she gets to enjoy being outside with that massive fur coat of hers.

I’ll just miss her period. She added a lot to the household and was great with the kids, and pretty much, I’ll just miss her.