He stole our hearts as a puppy when Josh introduced us. All floppy ears, huge paws and rambunctious enthusiasm! His heart was huge, his soul gentle. He remained, as our grandson Jack said, “a really bouncy puppy” all the days of his life!

He loved it when we put on his harness because that usually meant we were going on a camping adventure, & Jakie *loved* road trips! Especially since they always meant he got a hamburger! Have I mentioned that Jake was a walking stomach with four paws?

That image is from Jakie’s last camping trip. We were camping seaside listening to the waves crashing onto the beach, rocking the camper holly days decorations! He is ‘patiently’ waiting for a cookie.

This photo always makes me laugh! Such a dejected dawg, sooooo abused! To think we would pay attention to someone else instead of The Jakester! How could we let our grandson come to stay?!?

Truth be told – Jake used to jump up between Chris & I when we got home from work (back in those long ago days when we actually left home for the office instead of “commuting” downstairs) because of course he was the star of the show! Surely we would want to hug him first? Such a puppy.

In mid January Jakie started acting odd. He even refused food. But then he rebounded and was his usual bouncy self, shamelessly begging for treats at every opportunity! We thought it was just a little tummy bug. He became sick again the last weekend of January, so that Monday I took him to see Donnie (his vet). The news was really bad. He had a tumor on his spleen that had ruptured, filling his abdomen with blood. We were given meds to help control the bleeding but told in time he would have a large bleed and would pass away painlessly.

We had exactly one week with him before that happened. It was a great week! Jakie was his usual happy, bouncy “Mr Enthusiasm” self, and we spoiled him absolutely rotten. We gave him every manner of doggy treat from sliced ham to begging strips, snuggles & cookies! Took him on a lovely walk yesterday sniffing to his heart’s content!

This morning he couldn’t stand, so we started a roaring fire in the woodstove, pulled his bed up close & sat in the floor snuggling him until he quietly sighed three times and slipped away. Jakie was a very good boy and he will be dearly missed.

After we got home from taking Jake to be cremated Chris stepped outside to get firewood. A dog in the distance was howling, which is surprisingly rare here. Barking yes. But this distant howling?

It felt like Jakie was saying goodbye, letting us know he was crossing the rainbow bridge.