We put down our beloved dog Josie on Friday and are filled with grief and gratitude. Grief because our home and our lives are emptier now without her. Gratitude because she was everything one could want in a dog.
Josie joined our family in November 2009 when we were living in Cincinnati. We had put down our dog Sandy in 2006, and I had issued a decree: no more dogs. Because our son Reed and daughter Jayne would be leaving for college in August 2009 and August 2010, respectively, my wife Courtney and I did not want to be saddled with a dog in our empty nest years. Jayne took the news particularly hard, as she has a special love for dogs.
In early November 2009, the senior pastor of our church gave a wonderful message on the importance of celebrating important milestones in our lives. He talked about how he was trying to make his high school senior’s last year at home special by taking his son on a long road trip on Harley-Davidson motorcycles. After watching a hokey Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie, A Dog Named Christmas, in which a family provides a foster home over Christmas for a dog from a local shelter, I thought that would be a great thing to do for Jayne before she left for college. Following up on the movie, animal shelters nationwide were sponsoring a Foster a Lonely Pet for the Holidays Promotion, and I found a wonderful participating local shelter. I told Jayne we wanted to make this last Christmas at home a memorable one for her by fostering a dog over the holidays. I made her sign a contract promising that the dog would go back to the shelter on December 26 — no exceptions, and no fuss.
Jayne chose the dog, and we opened our home (and our hearts) to Josie, a mutt mix of Pit Bull, Chow, and German Shepherd. After Josie’s first days in our home, Courtney and I decided we would tell Jayne on Christmas morning that we were adopting Josie. We also decided to keep the foster ruse going by dropping Josie off at the shelter on Saturdays so they could bring her to adoption fairs at a local PetSmart. Jayne prayed in the car that Josie would not be adopted, but I said we had to think of Josie’s best interests and hope that a wonderful family would adopt her. I worked things out so the shelter would not bring Josie to the adoption fair, and Jayne and I would return three hours later to take Josie home (to Jayne’s great relief). It was a very special Christmas, as Jayne cried with delight when she opened the last present under the tree: Josie’s adoption papers.
Josie was a spectacular dog in every way. She was enmeshed in the daily rhythms of our family life. She was strong, energetic, and loved to run and chase her beloved “binky ball.” She loved all of the adventures we went on through the years. But she equally loved the quiet times at home. She would lie at the feet of whatever family member was home; if more than one person was home, she would lie in a comfortable spot equidistant from each. She was deeply devoted to her family “pack” and loved to sleep with us (perhaps to our health benefit; the science is mixed), but she also would try to jump in the FedEx truck and would try to run into neighbors’ homes, looking for more people to love. Early on, we realized she did not do well in a kennel away from people when we had to go away. So for over a decade we would find someone to stay in our home to be with her while we were gone. She would pensively watch us pack for a trip, but we sensed she also was wondering who would be staying with her this time. We joked that Josie’s life motto came from Stephen Stills: “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.” After we moved to Malibu, Josie’s photo was featured in the local paper, and she became the canine matriarch of our neighborhood filled with families with young children and dogs.
Josie kept her zest and joy for life as she aged, even as she stoically dealt with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Thyroid Disease, and Cancer. She endured a daily regimen of pills and an uber-restricted diet and Immunotherapy shots to keep the cancer at bay for as long as possible. She eventually developed multiple tumors throughout her body, including two large tumors in her mouth that made eating difficult. Her new favorite “treat” was ice cubes to dull the pain. Despite it all, she awoke each morning and bounded out of our bed brimming with excitement about what the new day would bring (and left behind blood that had seeped out of the tumors while she slept). Through it all, she embodied Psalm 118:4 like no human or animal I have ever known: “This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
Josie was a special companion for me. She joined me when I drove 30,000 miles to watch Reed’s college soccer games. After I became dean, I called her the “First Dog of the Law School” as she joined me in:
hundreds of tennis matches with faculty, staff, students, and alumni:
over a hundred Wednesday night Bible studies:
hundreds of student dinners at our home:
dozens of walks with students:
one formal Zoom party during Covid:
and one student graduation party with a Legally Blonde theme:
When Josie joined us, Jayne was a Senior at Cincinnati Country Day High School, Reed was a Freshman at Grinnell College, Courtney was a Law Clerk for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, and I was a chaired professor and Associate Dean of Faculty at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. When Josie left us, we all were in very different stages of life: Jayne is an Ob-Gyn Resident at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, Reed is married and is a Technical Services Analyst at Epic in Madison, and Courtney is retired and partnering with me in my dean role at Pepperdine Caruso Law School. Josie fully shared in and enriched our lives and our journeys over the past 4,946 days. Our remaining days will not be the same without her.
Letting Josie go reminded us of this wrenching departure I previously blogged:
Update: Jayne beautifully captured on Instagram the moment we shared on Friday:
My sweet girl Josie passed away today at 3:35 PST. She loved our family ferociously for 13.5 years and (don’t tell Mathilda I said this) but she will always be the goodest girl. She went out with a bang, eating chicken with a vigor not seen in many years from our old gal. I know she is already playing binky ball in doggy heaven with Marshmallow and Atticus. We miss her desperately already.
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2023/06/josie-shands-caron-2007-2023.html
