The Skunk River Review - DMACC

The Measure of a Friend
Everybody has memories of special friends in his/her life; many of mine happen to be of
the four-legged variety. My special friends were always there for me when I needed them and
could always make me feel better. Although there have been many companions over the years,
there are those few who stand out in my memory and always will. Unfortunately, special friends
cannot stay with us forever; nonetheless, I have no doubt that I will always keep in my heart he
memories of Mitzi, Chipper Kealy Cat and Izzy.
I have so many memories about Mitzi; after all, she was my first dog. We had her for
as long as I can remember. She was nearly all black with a little bit of white on her
chest and was a rather small dog; however, she had a big and very brave heart. One
of the things that I remember most about Mitzi is how protective she was. Everyone
got a kick out of how she would react when our dad would get mad at one of us.
Now and then he would tease Mitzi by pretending that he was going to spank one of
us. However, as one might imagine, this did not go over so well with her. She
would growl, bark and even try to sometimes bite him. Mitzi, who was with us until
she was about 14, was always a faithful friend, but like all good friends we had to say
good-bye to her.
A few years before we had to say good-bye to Mitzi, I was lucky enough to find Chipper;
she was a beautiful six-month-old German Shepherd/Collie mix. I was outside in the front yard
when I first saw her wandering around across the street; she almost had been hit by a car. We had
an immediate connection, and I knew she was meant to be a part of our family.
Unfortunately, getting our dad to realize this was a completely different matter. Our
mom, however, was very helpful. In fact, she helped us hide Chipper in the backyard for a couple
days, just until our dad could be convinced she should be our dog. Once we had taken care of that
little problem, Chipper fit right in, and with a little help from Mitzi, she learned all the rules of the
house. Finding her that day was a gift, and one that we never took for granted. Chipper was about
thirteen years old when we found out that she had cancer. Since my mom did not want to see her
suffer, we all gave her a kiss and said good-bye to our beautiful girl.
Growing up, we had many family pets, but when I was about twelve years old my mom
took me out to the Animal Rescue League when I met Kealy Cat. He wasn’t even old enough to
be away from his mother yet. He was so tiny that all you could see was the tip of his little black
tail sticking out over the top of the litter box. Kealy came home with met hat day, and for the first
time I had a kitty that was all mine. In the beginning, he was a little black ball of pure energy,
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