chilly
dereks monday bug reminds me so much of my childhood dog Chilly.
she was a black chihuahua mix that my sister and i found running through traffic one garage sale saturday when we were very young. she was the tiniest puppy we had ever seen; we named her Tiny.
not long after we fell in love with her my mom found her owner and, through many tears, we let her go. a year or so later we got her back with her new name: Chilly.
Chilly could never get warm enough. she would burrow her way to the bottom of the tallest stack of blankets sitting on the waterbed. she would lay directly in front of the heater vent for hours. during the summer, she would sprawl out on the cement porch directly in the sun.
she could hardly open her eyes and her tongue hung down to the ground, but that was how she was happiest.
i would often lie down in front of the heater with her and often fell asleep. she never was very happy about sharing the heater.
every time i see a dog panting in the sun, i think of Chilly. every time i want to lie in front of a heater vent, i think of Chilly. every time Lacey cannot get her nose under the covers to make her way to the bottom, i think of Chilly.
she died in the spring of 2000 while i was at college. she died lying directly in front of that heater vent. i know she had died hot, and i know she had died happy.
2004
3 Love Notes
Chilly was one in a million. She did the neatest things, one that sticks out is the first time I saw Marty flop her over on her belly and start tickling her. I've never heard a dog laugh before or after, I still laugh thinking about that. I might also go as far as calling her the matriarch of the family. She was the size of Buddy's head yet she put real fear in him; she could have whooped him good, and we could tell he knew it by the way he avoided even making eye contact with her. Although she tolerated him, she didn't like him and wasn't afraid to get in his face. haha Chilly and Tiger were the great loves of Marty's childhood, he still talks about them with much love.
she was definitely in charge of the neighborhood. she knew it, we knew it, all the other dogs 50 times her size knew it. she didnt like Bud because he was a puppy and tried to play with her once before he knew she was a dictator.
That makes me sad. Chili rocked.
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