RIP Betsy

Losing a dog always hurts, especially when it’s your first dog.

Rosie was my first. An Irish setter cross, she was big and black, terrified of thunder, and addicted to garbage. She died when I was in junior high. Dad told me she’d been hit by a car.

It wasn’t until years later that he told me the truth. She had been kicked to death by our next-door neighbor Mr. Ruschmeier, who caught her doing her business in his yard.

My folks feared that had I known the truth at the time I would have sought some sort of retribution. They were probably right. I loved that dog.

I had never liked Mr. Ruschmeier, a German immigrant with a thick accent, who used to yell at us when we crossed his lawn. He was stern and humorless. After Dad told me what had really happened, whenever I heard anyone speaking with a similar accent I thought of Mr. Ruschmeier.

Then about 10 years ago my Springer spaniel Scout was killed by a rattlesnake. My wife was out of town and I didn’t want to sit alone in the house and grieve so I went for a drive. I ended up at the Loring Hutterite Colony where I met the most wonderful people, who just happened to speak with thick German accents.

Mike Hofer invited me into his home where his delightful wife, Debra, served me coffee and rolls. We’ve been good friends since that day.

I didn’t tell them about Scout until recently. They didn’t have a dog at the time and I didn’t see any on the colony.

A few years ago, however, Debra’s sister Anita got a Chihuahua they named Susy Q and the whole family fell in love with the little dog, especially Mike and Debra’s daughters Amber and Samantha. Eventually, Samantha got a dog of her own, Betsy, a black and white Border Collie. Sam and Betsy were inseparable.

Sadly, Betsy was struck and killed earlier this month by a UPS truck driving past the colony. Sam was inconsolable. I know how she feels, like there’s a hole in her heart that can’t be filled.

But it can.

And it will.

Maybe someday she’ll get another dog. I hope so. It always hurts to lose one, but if we didn’t love them so fiercely we wouldn’t miss them so badly.

RIP Betsy.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]