In Rememberance.... Picture Heavy

The day I got to Texas, my daughter called me to say that our faithful 14 year old dog Zip had passed away. I wanted to wait till I got home to share this, because I wanted to share these pictures as well as the story of how he came into our lives 14 years ago.
I went to the store one day and there were some kids out front with a box. There were little black puppies peeking out, some jumping others just looking around. I walked up to the box to get a better look, and in the bottom of the box in the corner was a silver, tan, grey and black ball of fur. I of course took that ball of fur home. I wanted a truck dog. I wanted a dog that would be exited every time I said "wanna go for a ride?". I wanted a bosom buddy, one that would go with me every where and be my best friend. This seemed like the perfect dog! According to the kids with the box, the mother was a golden retriever, the father was a blue merle Australian Shepard, he had a different sire than the other puppies, they were golden and black lab.
As he grew, we realized he was going to be a good blend of the two breeds; the size and mellow attitude of the golden, with the colors and hair of the Aussie. He was smart, and beautiful, and after going through several dogs over the past few years, none of which really fit us, its seemed we'd finally gotten lucky.
I brought this little silver fluff ball home, thinking I'd found the perfect dog. Well I did, I had a dog, but he didn't have me. It was about ten minutes after bringing him into the house, that this little fluff ball had found his boy. If Tad and I sat on opisite sides of the room and called Zip, he would always go to Tad, but if I said lets go for a ride, he'd dump Tad in a second! So I had a truck dog, but Tad was his Boy.
Tad named him Zip, after the Australian blue healer in the movie 'Last of the Dog Men', Tad's favorite movie of all, but as he got older, we realized he wasn't all that zippy. He was very laid back, but he did love to play with sticks! He would chase anything you threw but would only bring sticks back.

 Not much room left for Tad....

 This was taken about halfway up Mt. Lewis, looking out on Reese River Valley, where we live.

 Tad was teaching Zip to catch treats off his nose.

Derek's mother was very sick with stomach and intestinal cancer, so we all packed up and went to visit her in April of 2004, she passed away on June 4th that same year.

Zip rode in the back of the Suburban, while Tad had the back seat to himself. At one point, Derek had went off the road just a bit and hit the rumble strip, scared Zip so bad he jumped into the back seat where Tad was stretched out. Zip landed feet first in Tad's groin. We all laughed at Tad's discomfiture. Neither he or Zip thought it was too funny at the time :) 

 Zip loved horse grain, and didn't really care that Jasper loved it too....

 That same trip to Arizona to see Derek's mother, we came home by way of the Grand Canyon. Wonderful memories!

 Me, Jasper and Zip, ready to go for a quick ride.

 This is on Mount Moses, just me Derek and Zip on this trip, just wandering around the mountains.

 Tad and I used to do this a lot, he loved looking at the stars.

They are together now, I think. It is a comforting thought.
Rest in Peace Zipper!