DILLIGAF
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First of all, thank you for the kind words. I read all of them and appreciate the condolences.
This little "obit" (a long read) if you will is really for me to clear my mind and remember all the great times that made Roxy so special to me. These are just a few of the stories that bring a smile to my face.
Roxy was born about April 1st, 2006 and was a mix of Pit and Border Collie. She passed on 6-29-2022.
I was looking for another pup at the time after my Choc Lab and Boxer had passed away within 6 months of each other, but they had to like water as I was boating just about every day. My son kept an eye out for me and said he found a pup for me.
So he brought over Klowy who looked more like a traditional pit in Roxy's litter. When Klowy came to me she crawled to me and I did not like that. Nope....grab another one and let me check her out. He brought me an unamed pup with no hair on her hind legs and she walked right up to me. Told my son I would take her to the river and if she liked the water I would like to keep her. She was about 7 weeks old at the time.
Her first trip to the river in the truck she threw up in the back seat and I was like great....she doesn't like traveling
Boy was I wrong on that one.
When we got to the river house she saw my pool and did a belly flop into it. She was swimming all around with joy I wish we could all feel. It is at this point that I noticed her extreme webbed paws. I could not keep her out of the pool or lake and she naturally swam like a doggie alligator.....lol There was hardly a ripple as she swam and this continued her entire life. You could not stop Roxy from swimming daily and even swam with two feet of snow piled up around the pool with tempos in the low 30's. Water dog thru and thru.
So....how was she going to do on the boat? We found out very quickly that she LOVED boating. She didn't care how fast or slow we went her ears would flap along and she would just smile. She even jumped on a jet ski with me and we rode in front of the casinos in Laughlin. Her ears were flopping and she had a big smile on her face. I was on the shore and she just jumped up on the jet ski and sat down so I had to take her out....lol
Whenever we stopped it was all about dive bombing into the river or lake. She truly was relentless when it came to swimming and the heat didn't seem to bother her at all. Taylor made puppy for me.
Then I found out that she would run down and bring back any item I would throw but preferred a tennis ball. I literally would throw the ball for her every day pretty much for 2-3 hours at a time. I always had a pretty good arm from baseball playing and I would throw it as far as I could. The energy she displayed was off the charts. One of my buddies observed this and was amazed at her perseverance and asked me if I was training her to be a "Long Distance Ethiopian Runner" lol That always cracked me up. So the precedent had been set and she was now conditioned to expect this daily. I was very fortunate to be able to spend the time like this every day with Roxy and she ate it up.
While at the park Roxy made good friends with a huge Great Dane and Rotti. They always looked out for her and when she showed up those three played together and didn't let other dogs in the circle. That is when the ladies told me Roxy should enter the Splash Dogs competition. What's that?
So.....Splash Dogs is a traveling circuit for pups to compete for length of jumps and they accumulate points and people take it seriously and travel around competing. They set up a temp above ground pool with distance markers and so forth. The dogs take off running and jump as far as they can and it is measured from the end of the ramp to impact of the water...could be a tail or whatever. So, these dogs were professional distance jumpers. In the parking lot people had these throw bags that their dogs were expected to run and catch as high as possible and come down at a perfect angle so as not to drag their tails. People were practicing tossing these bags with no dog around. OK then....lol
So....Tom from BHC and his pit are announced. We get a couple of practice jumps and Roxy had never done this before. So I walk to the end of the ramp with my tennis ball and Roxy stays at her end chomping at the bit to go. I stationed my buddy at the ramp stairs and told him under no circumstance allow Roxy down those stairs....NO MATTER WHAT! So I tell Roxy to go and she takes off like a banshee....I toss the tennis ball and she skids to a stop at the end of the ramp....turns around and heads away and down the steps. My buddy throws his hands up and backs away and now Roxy is on the loose thru the crowd. The crowd is "Oh no.....pit bull on the loose" kind of crap so I head down the stairs as soon as I could. When I go around the elevated pool I can't find her and the crowd erupts in cheers. Roxy had jumped over the barrier INTO the pool had the ball and was getting out of the water.....lol
On her counted jumps she did it perfectly. She won the blue ribbon and we never returned. She was on the points board but since we never returned, I was good with that. Roxy the Pit Bull from BHC showed those pure breeds what's what
We dropped the mic to never to be seen again.
I found out she had an amazing nose. Never really thought about it to much but I had a condo in Corona that had big ice plant out back. I used to throw pinecones for her out there and I made it more and more difficult for her. I started throwing the pinecones while she sat looking at me with her back to where I was throwing and wouldn't let her release to fetch until the pinecone hit and fell down in the ice plant. She would start in a big circle and continue to tighten her circle until she found the cone. There were always other cones there but she ALWAYS found the cone I had thrown. It was amazing to me and really opened my eyes up to what a special dog she was.
I used to take her to the doggie beach in Huntington Beach but had to stop that. Around pools and bodies of water Roxy was always on guard to "rescue" anybody or any dog in trouble. It amazed me. She was an onsite lifeguard around the pool. Kids were extremely safe when Roxy was there and she would not hesitate to save you if needed. Well....at HB it was a total backfire. She had a lot of saving to do and went into overdrive trying to pull all the pups to safety from the ocean. She thought she was saving them all. The other pups thought they were getting attacked and the owners were like "WTF is wrong with your dog?" I couldn't take her anymore. She really thought she was saving all those pups....lol
When her cousin Baily (Americal Bulldog) went in the pool in BHC for the first time Roxy sprang into action and grabbed Baily by the head and dragged her out and to the decking. Keep in mind Baily outweighed Roxy by about 10 lbs. Baily didn't appreciate that....lol Again Roxy was misunderstood as she had to save Baily
So, one of the funniest stories is when I hosted my niece and her friends along with their boyfriends who all played football for Fresno State. Everybody got drunk and jumped in the hot tub. Including Roxy. Well they were all play making out with Roxy in the hot tub until I made her get out. She didn't want to get out....lol I have pics somewhere. Funny as shit but Roxy always loved a party
As she started getting older we started going on trips and have traveled around the USA. She has swum in lakes all over including Tahoe and the Pacific Ocean. She was always a great passenger and if I drove 8-10 hours or 2 hours she was fine with that. She loved her backseat "condo" I set up for her and that was her space.
So many stories to share but I have said enough. I can tell you this though she always accepted anybody or pup that I did. She had so many pups coming and going over the years as I fostered my share of them until they got good homes. She was always the one that taught these pups by example and not intimidation. There was a lot of women coming and going also and Roxy was very nice to all of them. Basically, she always made good impressions on everybody.
She passed away in the back seat of the truck comfortably with me holding her. I was telling her she was loved, she was the best dog a person could want and it was OK to rest now. It was very rough on me yesterday as I was feeling like I let her down in a selfish way. I was crushed to a level that I didn't know existed for me. Today I realized that I needed to do that so she could rest after an awesome life with me and that it was about her needs and not mine so I am doing fine.
Today.....I woke up to this rainbow.....I believe it was Roxys way of letting me know that all is good and she was passing a little brightness to my day.
Love your pups peeps and thanks for reading this. Like I said it was for me to clear my head.
Alright.....signing off again after I post some pics but it will take some time to pick out the ones I want up. I had to come on here and thank everybody as you have been very kind.
Thank you
Tom AKA DILLIGAF
RIP to my beautiful pup Roxy 4-1-2006 to 6-29-2022
This little "obit" (a long read) if you will is really for me to clear my mind and remember all the great times that made Roxy so special to me. These are just a few of the stories that bring a smile to my face.
Roxy was born about April 1st, 2006 and was a mix of Pit and Border Collie. She passed on 6-29-2022.
I was looking for another pup at the time after my Choc Lab and Boxer had passed away within 6 months of each other, but they had to like water as I was boating just about every day. My son kept an eye out for me and said he found a pup for me.
So he brought over Klowy who looked more like a traditional pit in Roxy's litter. When Klowy came to me she crawled to me and I did not like that. Nope....grab another one and let me check her out. He brought me an unamed pup with no hair on her hind legs and she walked right up to me. Told my son I would take her to the river and if she liked the water I would like to keep her. She was about 7 weeks old at the time.
Her first trip to the river in the truck she threw up in the back seat and I was like great....she doesn't like traveling
Boy was I wrong on that one.When we got to the river house she saw my pool and did a belly flop into it. She was swimming all around with joy I wish we could all feel. It is at this point that I noticed her extreme webbed paws. I could not keep her out of the pool or lake and she naturally swam like a doggie alligator.....lol There was hardly a ripple as she swam and this continued her entire life. You could not stop Roxy from swimming daily and even swam with two feet of snow piled up around the pool with tempos in the low 30's. Water dog thru and thru.
So....how was she going to do on the boat? We found out very quickly that she LOVED boating. She didn't care how fast or slow we went her ears would flap along and she would just smile. She even jumped on a jet ski with me and we rode in front of the casinos in Laughlin. Her ears were flopping and she had a big smile on her face. I was on the shore and she just jumped up on the jet ski and sat down so I had to take her out....lol
Whenever we stopped it was all about dive bombing into the river or lake. She truly was relentless when it came to swimming and the heat didn't seem to bother her at all. Taylor made puppy for me.
Then I found out that she would run down and bring back any item I would throw but preferred a tennis ball. I literally would throw the ball for her every day pretty much for 2-3 hours at a time. I always had a pretty good arm from baseball playing and I would throw it as far as I could. The energy she displayed was off the charts. One of my buddies observed this and was amazed at her perseverance and asked me if I was training her to be a "Long Distance Ethiopian Runner" lol That always cracked me up. So the precedent had been set and she was now conditioned to expect this daily. I was very fortunate to be able to spend the time like this every day with Roxy and she ate it up.
While at the park Roxy made good friends with a huge Great Dane and Rotti. They always looked out for her and when she showed up those three played together and didn't let other dogs in the circle. That is when the ladies told me Roxy should enter the Splash Dogs competition. What's that?
So.....Splash Dogs is a traveling circuit for pups to compete for length of jumps and they accumulate points and people take it seriously and travel around competing. They set up a temp above ground pool with distance markers and so forth. The dogs take off running and jump as far as they can and it is measured from the end of the ramp to impact of the water...could be a tail or whatever. So, these dogs were professional distance jumpers. In the parking lot people had these throw bags that their dogs were expected to run and catch as high as possible and come down at a perfect angle so as not to drag their tails. People were practicing tossing these bags with no dog around. OK then....lol
So....Tom from BHC and his pit are announced. We get a couple of practice jumps and Roxy had never done this before. So I walk to the end of the ramp with my tennis ball and Roxy stays at her end chomping at the bit to go. I stationed my buddy at the ramp stairs and told him under no circumstance allow Roxy down those stairs....NO MATTER WHAT! So I tell Roxy to go and she takes off like a banshee....I toss the tennis ball and she skids to a stop at the end of the ramp....turns around and heads away and down the steps. My buddy throws his hands up and backs away and now Roxy is on the loose thru the crowd. The crowd is "Oh no.....pit bull on the loose" kind of crap so I head down the stairs as soon as I could. When I go around the elevated pool I can't find her and the crowd erupts in cheers. Roxy had jumped over the barrier INTO the pool had the ball and was getting out of the water.....lol
On her counted jumps she did it perfectly. She won the blue ribbon and we never returned. She was on the points board but since we never returned, I was good with that. Roxy the Pit Bull from BHC showed those pure breeds what's what
We dropped the mic to never to be seen again.I found out she had an amazing nose. Never really thought about it to much but I had a condo in Corona that had big ice plant out back. I used to throw pinecones for her out there and I made it more and more difficult for her. I started throwing the pinecones while she sat looking at me with her back to where I was throwing and wouldn't let her release to fetch until the pinecone hit and fell down in the ice plant. She would start in a big circle and continue to tighten her circle until she found the cone. There were always other cones there but she ALWAYS found the cone I had thrown. It was amazing to me and really opened my eyes up to what a special dog she was.
I used to take her to the doggie beach in Huntington Beach but had to stop that. Around pools and bodies of water Roxy was always on guard to "rescue" anybody or any dog in trouble. It amazed me. She was an onsite lifeguard around the pool. Kids were extremely safe when Roxy was there and she would not hesitate to save you if needed. Well....at HB it was a total backfire. She had a lot of saving to do and went into overdrive trying to pull all the pups to safety from the ocean. She thought she was saving them all. The other pups thought they were getting attacked and the owners were like "WTF is wrong with your dog?" I couldn't take her anymore. She really thought she was saving all those pups....lol
When her cousin Baily (Americal Bulldog) went in the pool in BHC for the first time Roxy sprang into action and grabbed Baily by the head and dragged her out and to the decking. Keep in mind Baily outweighed Roxy by about 10 lbs. Baily didn't appreciate that....lol Again Roxy was misunderstood as she had to save Baily
So, one of the funniest stories is when I hosted my niece and her friends along with their boyfriends who all played football for Fresno State. Everybody got drunk and jumped in the hot tub. Including Roxy. Well they were all play making out with Roxy in the hot tub until I made her get out. She didn't want to get out....lol I have pics somewhere. Funny as shit but Roxy always loved a party
As she started getting older we started going on trips and have traveled around the USA. She has swum in lakes all over including Tahoe and the Pacific Ocean. She was always a great passenger and if I drove 8-10 hours or 2 hours she was fine with that. She loved her backseat "condo" I set up for her and that was her space.
So many stories to share but I have said enough. I can tell you this though she always accepted anybody or pup that I did. She had so many pups coming and going over the years as I fostered my share of them until they got good homes. She was always the one that taught these pups by example and not intimidation. There was a lot of women coming and going also and Roxy was very nice to all of them. Basically, she always made good impressions on everybody.
She passed away in the back seat of the truck comfortably with me holding her. I was telling her she was loved, she was the best dog a person could want and it was OK to rest now. It was very rough on me yesterday as I was feeling like I let her down in a selfish way. I was crushed to a level that I didn't know existed for me. Today I realized that I needed to do that so she could rest after an awesome life with me and that it was about her needs and not mine so I am doing fine.
Today.....I woke up to this rainbow.....I believe it was Roxys way of letting me know that all is good and she was passing a little brightness to my day.
Love your pups peeps and thanks for reading this. Like I said it was for me to clear my head.
Alright.....signing off again after I post some pics but it will take some time to pick out the ones I want up. I had to come on here and thank everybody as you have been very kind.
Thank you
Tom AKA DILLIGAF
RIP to my beautiful pup Roxy 4-1-2006 to 6-29-2022
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Friends are friends, four legged or two. Animals will never ask of you anything, but with nothing can brighten your life. They are the most "pure" in their actions. As humans, we should try to be more like them.
