In Memory of Zip

It is hard to lose a pet when that pet becomes a member of the family. Yesterday the 17th of May 2011 Zip can feel better, see, hear, run, and jump. It is sad to see another era of our life end. We got Zip because I wanted a red heeler dog. Stacy thought I was crazy. At the time we had a border collie dog we were breeding and a whole batch of puppies. When we saw that there were heeler pups in Ashton I convinced him that we needed another dog. Well needless to stay Zip is the one who became a permanent part of our family. The kids even remember going and getting him. We went to these peoples house and in their back porch I think there were 3 puppies that we could chose from. We all put our two cents in and we came home with Zip. At that time the movie "Last of the Dog Men" was around and he had the coolest blue heeler named Zip. Plus we all liked it. He was such a fun dog. Here are some of our memories of Zip. He loved to play with the kids. When we would go sledding he would always come and chase us up and down the hill. When Dalan was playing baseball he and his Dad would go out to practice batting. Stacy would throw it to Dalan, and Dalan would hit it and Zip would go get the ball and give it back to Stacy. He loved to go with us in the pick up. If he could tell we were headed that direction he would jump up and want to go. We took him a lot. He went on multiply camp trips with us. We would tie him up at night and if some wild animal was near we would feel him jerking on the camper trying to get loose and go and protect us. He loved to ride the wheeler with Stacy. As he has gotten older he hasn't been able to jump up into things for a while. It made us all sad. For a little while we even helped him and picked him up and put him in the pick up. Being a cow dog, he did love to chase cows. He got to help us here some, but loved it when we took him to the Curtis Ranch and he got to chase. Not sure if Grandpa always approved of his behavior. ha ha. When we lived over at our old house and our kids were riding the bus, you always knew when it was time for them to come home. Zip had a sense for time and he would sit and wait for them and go and walk with them. It always amazed me. I think Zip was probably in most or near by, all the first day of school pictures. He didn't like the guns and one day we had a wiener roast and were shooting guns. He would always come and sit by or under my chair when this happened. One day he walked over to me and lifted his leg and peed on me. I wasn't very happy at the time. But thinking back on it, he was claiming me and liked me. He loved to be around us, in fact he has slept under neath our bedroom window most of his life. At our old house he would be right there, we could even hear him some times. I think he went there cause he could hear us talk. When we moved to our new house our bedroom window is high above the ground but he would go right next to it by the retaining wall. He loved to run and chase squirrels. Especially when getting the sprinkler pipe ready each year. Zip loved to wiggle his way into the house, especially on cold winter mornings, especially as he got older. He thought he was so tricky. What a personality he had. He LOVED his belly rubbed. He would lay stretched out and his hind leg would go to just a wagg'en. We figure Bailey was 2 or 3 when we got Zip. We always said that his birthday was on the 1st of  Feb., so he was 14 or 15. Pretty old for a dog. There won't be another one like him just because of the time of our life when we had him. Great memories, we will miss him.
Zip, Please tell Toots, Hecktor, Patch, and Snag HELLO.