The Unsinkable Molly Brown Went Down in a Calm Sea Today

The unsinkable Molly B. went down peacefully today in a calm sea. She fought many storms, but she never floundered and always came home safely. Molly B. born October, 1993 died on May 30, 2010 passed from this mortal world and into that land of dreams.

She was born first of October and it wasn't until mid November before I would have her, at 6 weeks a puppy so small it could curl up in the palm for your hand and still see your fingers, so fat you could not see her feet and a small nub where her tail should have been, she was one of those rare chihuahuas that are born tailless, unlike where most had it surgically done while still a young pup. She could fit in my top shirt pocket and often you could find her there with her little head and two front paws peeking out over the opening. We bonded fast, no one could come near me without her wanting to tear into them and wreck their nerves with her incessant barking until they left. She would escort them to the door nipping at their heels and once the storm door was shut, she would look out at them growling and wiping her back paws on the carpet. She was a very protective companion, even cockroaches didn't stand a chance with her. When we would all be out in the yard on cool summer evenings, she would patrol the flower beds and hedges and chase all the toads away. Wasn't a safe squirrel in the trees or a bird feeder we ever had to refill after we put it up, because not even the birds wanted to enter air space over my house. I would actually see squirrels cross the street in our neighbor's yard, go down the yard of the house directly across from ours and then recross the street to climb a tree in the neighbor's yard on the other side of me.

After about 6 months we had decided it was safe to take her on a trip to New Braunfels to visit the grandparents. That was a trip in itself. It wasn't that she wasn't used to riding in a car, but the scenery outside the car's windows was all new to her and she went back and forth across the dash board of the car looking at everything we passed and if it really had her attention, she would jump across seats and up onto the rear deck of the car and continue her barking and we soon found out, she had a lot of new stuff to bark at. Even the bugs that met the proverbial windshield of life going 70 miles per hour, she would bark and paw at the splotch left on the window. I can remember the first time we used the windshield wipers, she went bonkers. I am not talking about that yip, yip, yip thing, I am talking all out jumping frenzy, blood curdling barks that would make you think she was fixing to break through the tempered glass and bring those wipers to a dreary demise. Then when we got to the in-laws and I was holding her, as we passed the wind shield wipers she felt it was her duty to set out on one more barking binge until something else caught her attention. Which fortunately for me good fortune smiles and out walks my father-in-law, Molly meet Grampa. As he extended his hand to shake mine she was clamped down on his thumb and in the throes of sending him and his thumb quickly to the ground and I never thought she could have learned that trick so fast watching reruns on PBS of President Ford's CIA, NSA, NCIS, Marine Corps and FBI body guards that wrestled Mr. Fords thumb quickly to the ground after they noticed his arm quickly and violently and giving the offending hand attached the momentum to propel itself in an upward arching motion to offend the right eye of the President and swiftly acting before the thumb could cause even more serious injury to the President's right eye up to brain penetration and a sure but agonizing death or a frontal lobotomy, which if you watched this guy for any length of time, you would have thought he had already been lobotomized swiftly locked in on their target and initiating a well rehearsed scenario acted in a synchronous fluid movement quickly bought the offending thumb down and in the melee which ensued shortly after they had seized the offending thumb bringing the President down with it. All the time you could hear the President in a very nervous high pitched sissy scream saying, "Hey now! Hey guys that's my F*#$ing hand you're breaking." With our brave Presidential bodyguards replying, "Don't worry Mr. President we have the situation well in hand now, you're safe." Eagerly and without hesitation or without fear of death defending me with the same well coordinated movement tried to subdue the offending hand coming towards mine. She let Grampa know very quickly that you would have to go through her to get to me and she was nothing to be trifled with. That was the weekend of discovery for her, those four legged creatures she saw eating in the fields and about 100 times her size let us see what a real dog can do. She actually ran after them leaping from my arms and leaving nothing but a trail of dust and small pebbles that ricochet off your ankles behind her heading to those bovine she found so offensive for some reason or if you are of a faith that teaches of reincarnation she was a reincarnation of a very pissed off wife who saw her booze guzzling, belching, farting, lazy undershirt wearing, spandex wrapped ass husband reincarnated in those cows, steers and one Brahma and Limousine cross cross bull, over 17 hands high to the top of his shoulders, a pair of slightly downward arching horns about fourteen inches long and as wide as a Silverado 3/4 ton four door powered by an Audi 6.6 liter turbo injected diesel and the Allison transmission 4x4 off road capable pickup truck, she proceed to take on the biggest one first or maybe it was just because she thought they were just really big dogs and wanted to sniff their butts to see what they have been eating. None the less she proved to us she thought she had adopted us and felt responsible for our personal safety untill we were old enough to take care of her and made sure the cattle stayed at a respectful distance at all times. She let everyone and everthing know she was taking us under her protection and that she was our first line of defense, our four legged missle that never missed a target. 

Yes that wonderful 48 hour weekend in hell when Molly had decided that the other two four legged, fur bearing, kibble eating inhabitants they fell lower on the food chain than she did and instantly set the pecking order which naturally made her first. She would lie in ambush behind the sofa, chair, recliner and any other form of concealment and wait patiently for one of those two poor excuses for what could vaguely be called  mongrel much less a bonified fur bearing, loyal, protective, four legged some what pedigreed canine or to the less informed a dog, to unwittingly cross her path and run out in quick darting attacks, yipping and attacking the flanks or rear posterior making sure if she couldn't do any physical harm, would at least give them a nervous breakdown with her frequent blitzkreig like psycological warfare tactics of never knowing when or where her next bombing mission would come from and being as small as she was there were a lot of places she could squeeze into to launch her attacks from. 

Never in my life had I become so attached to such a possessive woman. She was always there through everything, making her mark in life and in the life of everything around her. There was always Molly, always a nudge to get you to move and make room for her, always a little wet tongue kissing you, always the little puppy that found your ear lobe in the middle of the night and mistook it for a teet sucked on it in her sleep, always the little dog that when she ran in fast blurring circles through out the house, reminded you of the story book Little Black Sambo and the tiger that chased him in circles so fast it turned to butter. That fearless 5 pound Chihuahua who thought it was a Doberman Pincer moved into my heart as easily as your child moves into your heart. No longer was she a dog or even thought about as a dog, no, she was one of us, one of the family. Tears flowed today as I slowly dug the hole that would accept her frail body, that lifeless vessal that once held within it a piece of me and who was a piece of me. So many memories flooded out with the tears as I slowly lowered her down, I could feel my strength leave me as my shaking hands pushed over the dirt that would cover her, shroud her and hold her. 

Today the unsinkable Molly B. went down in calm seas, her last breath taken she now rests in my dreams and memories.

Later... 

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