KAILEY

This is Kailey.
She was a stray.
She was adopted by my daughter and lived almost 17 years.
She was the smartest dog I have ever known, including my own.
She was funny, bright, bouncy, perpetually upbeat, protective and intuitive.
If it is possible to have a heart dog that is not your own, she was mine.

When she was excited, she made this strange, high-pitched keening noise. Her Bunny noise. EEeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

When she was excited she leaped straight up in the air, maybe 3 feet above the ground.

Kailey lived with us off and on over the years. Here she is with Mitchell (ATB) when he was but a pup. She put up with him but as you can see by the wide, gaping jaws, it was not always a happy group. She would not have dreamed of hurting him. But by the expression I see here, she is about to yap right in his ear, or grab whatever she is guarding and leave. She barked a LOT. But at night, walking the dogs, we followed her bright and bushy white rear end with her beautiful silver tail curled over her back. Despite the fact that she had the worst underbite I have ever seen, she was a beautiful girl.

One time a serviceman came to the door and opened it before I had a chance to get there. Stacey and Kailey were staying upstairs, the bottom of the stairs ends to the left of the door. The guy opened the door and Kailey let out a roar and leaped-- LEAPED-- From about halfway down the stairs to the door, roaring like a German Shepherd, all her teeth bared, all her hair up and hit the door as the serviceman fell backwards out of it and slammed it in her face.

Later we saw Kailey on walks, innumerable times, place herself in front of my daughter when Kailey thought there was a threat. She was the sweetest, funniest dog I have ever known, but by God, nobody was going to mess with my daughter.

This is a typical Kailey expression. A combination of  suspicion, gentleness and temporary acceptance.

One day when she was staying with us I thought it was very quiet outside and I opened the door in time to see her stepping through the fence. I called to her--"Cheese, cheeese"-- her most favorite thing. She wagged her tail, and gave me a look similar to this and----vanished. (We found her.)


She was patient with the puppies but not overly so. She lived here with Mitchell and my first Belgian, Quiller with no problem. Later her companions were Rottweilers, and that was fine too. She grew older. She became slightly deaf, arthritic, and slow. It was so sad. She was a wonderful girl.

This is Kailey. She is ATB now but I think of her often, and I wonder if there will ever be another like her. She was not my dog, but I loved her as if she were, and I miss her all the same.