On Friday evening, July 7th, our sweet Akuna boy passed away. Golly bob, we miss him something fierce.
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Now, I'm writing this post for myself and my children and for our memories. I absolutely know that losing a pet is not the same as losing people that we love. I know this. I understand it. I've experienced loss of loved ones as well, and yes, the loss of a pet does not compare but it does still bring a level of grief and is worth commemorating. Our sweet Akuna boy was a treasure of a pet. And he deserves a little piece of blog world to honor his life.
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We got Akuna as a 9 week old puppy back in early 2011. Aaron and I had purchased a home in October 2010 and started looking for a miniature Australian shepherd. One February evening, I came across an ad in the classified section of our local paper and saw mini Australian shepherds on sale for $250 which is hundreds less than what we were seeing them for online. We were hoping for a girl blue merle with at least one blue eye. When I called the number, a sweet elderly lady answered and told me she had one puppy left that wasn't spoken for yet-- a blue merle boy with two blue eyes. He was the little guy and would fall asleep under the table with his brothers and sisters and then cry when he'd wake up and find out that everyone had moved away from under the table. We thought this was so sweet and didn't mind that it was a boy dog instead of a girl dog. We made arrangements to go pick him up the next afternoon after work.
When we arrived in this well established older neighborhood of a nearby town, this sweet elderly lady told us that the puppies had been born on December 30, 2010. We followed her into her kitchen where we met our little fluffball. We thanked the lady so much and were so very grateful for her generous price on the puppy.
We took him straight to Petsmart to pick out some puppy things. We ran into someone who knew the little elderly lady and told us that it wouldn't be long until Akuna's little pink nose turned fully black. Needless to say, his little nose never turned fully black. Mostly black, yes, but he still had a little pink on it til the day he passed on.
He LOVED to be outside. He'd go outside in a heartbeat and it was a feat to get him back in. He'd just run and run and run to his heart's content!
He was a GREAT dog for children, and that's an understatement. All three of my little ones LOVED him and cuddled him throughout his days. He was so soft and fluffy and just a precious spirit. We all miss him greatly and are figuring out life without our fluffball. We are giving our time now to our two little puppy girls (not really so little after all) and teaching them to be as good as Akuna was. They have big heartprints to fill.
Some things I'd like to remember about Akuna:
-two crystal blue eyes
-always called "she" because so pretty
-pink nose that never fully turned black
-very soft, especially the black patch
-little gauchos (what we called his fur on his back legs when it got long)
-loved to fetch
-high pitched bark (barked for the first time at a piece of ice and scared himself)
-named him for the Aboriginal word "to know or follow" since he was a mini Australian shepherd
-great with the kids
-if you reached to pet him, he'd instantly flip over for a belly rub
-learned early on how to sit, stay, and lay down based on hand signals (that was all Aaron)
-understood when we needed him just to lay down and be pet when we were going through tragedy (diabetes diagnosis, my Aunt's death, my Popa's death, etc.)
-laid in front of doorways when he was older since he couldn't see or hear well, he wanted to make sure he knew where we were
We love you forever, sweet Akuna boy.
Until Next Time,
Love, Reba
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