January 12, 2005 to November 5, 2019

I rescued Tigger when she was around 6 months of age. She was a beautiful, sweet puppy. My other dog, Zippy, actually picked her out. I had taken Zippy to meet many other dogs but he never liked any of them. Tigger’s rescue was able to bring her to our house to meet Zippy. Zippy pretty much ignored her until she decided she wanted to lick his face. He growled at her. She happily said, “ok, I guess I won’t lick his face”. Other than a scuffle here and there, they did quite well together. I am so thankful that Zippy picked Tigger to come live with us.

I immediately began training Tigger in agility. She picked it up very quickly. In fact, now I realize just how smart she was. For our first 10 years together I worked fairly long hours at my corporate job. We would go to class once a week and do a little training at home. We began competing when she was 18 months old. She was a bit nervous in competitions and ran much slower than in class. Over time, her confidence built, but she was not comfortable with the dogs walking outside the ring. She would bark at them if they got too close and were in her line of sight. 4 Years after entering competitions, in 2010, we began traveling out of state…5 trips to CA and 1 trip to NM in that year. That was the beginning of our fun. Over the years we managed to travel to CA, NM, NV, and CO, but most of our trips were to CA, lots of them. We had so much fun traveling and meeting such good people. Many of my good friends were made from our frequent trips to CA.

We had nearly 4 solid years together after my retirement. Our trips were frequent, our success was amazing, and I never got tired. I looked forward to each and every trip. Even those trips that had some misadventure….the skunk that sprayed Tigger in Santa Barbara, the fleas that came home with us, the bed bugs that also came home with us, and the many crazy things that happened at the hotels. We always stayed safe and enjoyed our time together as well as with friends.

In 2018, days after an amazing agility trial, life took a turn for the worse. Tigger had just turned 13 when she had a sudden episode with a vestibular disorder. It scared me to death. I thought she was dying before my eyes. She managed to recover but was left with a head tilt. We took many months off from competing. Just when I thought she was improving, she had a night with two long and scary seizures. They never knew what caused the seizures. She was put on Keppra and never had another seizure. I never put her on a dog walk again as I was afraid she would fall off. We did start competing again about 9 months later.

Once I retired in 2014, there was no stopping us. We traveled a lot and become such a good team. I finally had time to devote to training. She became so consistent and much faster. Dogs walking near the ring no longer bothered her. We managed to achieve so many titles. Although, it was fun to have a successful run, achieve lots of titles, make the podium, really, none of that mattered. I just enjoyed spending as much time as I could with my favorite girl. She was always game to do anything as long as it was with me. When we traveled to CA, especially if it was to Santa Barbara, I would rent a house with a yard and try to do two trials on consecutive weekends. During the week, we would spend our time at the beach, going for hikes every day, playing fetch on the sand, and watching Tigger chase the seagulls. She would run so fast down the beach after those birds, people watching her thought she was long gone. I would just call her and she would come racing back, normally with a seagull in her site. She would love to play fetch on the beach. When she got hot she would just lay in the sand. Dog Beach in Santa Barbara was our favorite place.

I remember being so happy when 2018 was over and we began a new year after all of the illnesses we faced, never knowing 2019 would be so much worse. I will never wish another year away again. We competed in a few agility trials as a Veteran. We did well but I was always cautious, making sure I kept her safe. Early in 2019, I noticed her peeing often. I assumed it was a urinary tract infection. My world came to a crashing halt when I learned she had bladder cancer. Just knowing I was going to lose her, lose her sooner than I could ever be prepared for. I spent so much time researching treatment options, not knowing what direction to turn. I finally decided on palliative radiation and chemo. Neither were very helpful. The shrinkage of the tumors from the chemo was short lived. She lived about 8 months past diagnosis. My happy world forever destroyed.

I did everything I could to keep Tigger healthy, but sadly nothing seemed to help. My 14 years with her were the best times of my life. She was fun to hang out with and we always received so much attention. People would always ask me if she was a coyote or a fox. So many people asked me that. She liked to be on the go and would chill out too.

My most favorite things about Tigger: 1) She loved to be with me more than anyone else. I still remember my husband taking her home from a trial while I stayed to work. You would have thought he was dragging her to the torture chamber. She screamed and cried, looking back at me while he walked her away. I never did that again. She was better off in her crate while I worked. 2) She loved to train in agility. I think it was because she was with me and she loved all the treats she got to eat. 3) She loved to play and I loved to play with her. She loved to play with toys, play fetch, tug, anything. We drew lots of attention at shows because they way I warmed her up was to get one of her tug toys and play tug with her. She was quite the tugger and she loved to rip them up. I brought an entire storage box full of tug toys because she liked a different toy throughout the day. I still have that box in my car where it was always kept. 4) She loved food especially cheese balls and cheese. Food motivated her to do almost anything which made her so easy to train. 5) She was extremely smart. Since she loved food so much she would learn things so quickly and easily. I spent so little time training her compared to the amount of time I train my current dogs but she did so well. 6) I loved her bark and she loved to bark. Her bark was a bit demanding, but I always knew what she was telling me. She would tell me, “hurry up and feed me, I am so hungry”, “let’s go for a walk, now!”, “here is my ring, let’s play some fetch”, “throw it again, now!”, On the agility course she would say, ”you were late with your cross”, ”let’s go, I am ready”, ”did you see that dog?”. 7) My most favorite thing was just chilling with her. She loved to lay right next to me watching TV. At night, she had her own bed, but she would sneak up on our bed to curl right up next to me. I would sometime wake up in the morning to her head on my chest staring at me, eagerly waiting for me to wake up. As I opened my eyes, she would start licking my face. How I miss that face! How I miss everything about her!

All I can say is we had an amazing life together. I don’t think I will ever enjoy life as much as I did during those 14 years. I felt such pure, unconditional love for her. I miss her every day and wish I could somehow get her back to me. She will never be forgotten for as long as I live. Run free, My Beautiful Miss Tigger Girl!