by Charles Low
COCO MEMORIAL
This is a tribute and memorial to a wonderful little creature that came into my life for six short years and stole my heart away. My sweet, precious CoCo was the joy of my heart. She brought me so much happiness and so many memories. I never want to forget her.
EATING
CoCo loved to eat. Her routine(started by Charles because he said she wanted to be with us and because he said when we feed her in the kitchen she would bring it piece by piece into the living room to eat it) was to get one scoop of Kibbles 'n Bits in a paper plate on her rug in the living room. She would stretch out to eat it, one bite at a time. She was a merciless begger. She liked everything but her favorite food was chicken. Whenever Charles cooked on the grill, he always cooked extra for her. Whenever she heard aluminum foil opening from the refrigerator, she came running because she knew it was "something good to eat" that was leftover from the night before. She also came running when she heard me open the package of cheese. She loved pizza and got so excited when Daddy took her for a ride to pick it up. When I ate my cereal in the mornings, I always left a little milk in the bottom on the bowl and she would finish it. She always begged for Charles' bacon in the mornings, and he always gave her a little taste. Her favorite treat was a round bone with a chewy center(Bonz). We would leave her one if we were going to be gone from a while. She would save it until we came home and then she would prance around and show us she still had it and we didn't have a treat. She would eat it by breaking it into, eating the chewy center first and then eating the hard part.
ATTENTION GETTER
CoCo knew how to get your attention. She was a yapper, but if she wanted something a lot of times she would come up to you and push your leg with her paw. She would push hard. Sometimes if I had bare legs, she would lick my leg. I think this was more of a way to say "I love you."
PLAYING
CoCo was a fun dog and she was a happy dog. Many times you would look at her and she would have a smile on her face. She loved to play with "Baby" her squeaky toy. She had 2 "babies," one was the blue baby. We called him "old baby" and her "new baby" was a pink squeaky rabbit. In the afternoons when I got off work and was trying to undress, she would peek around the corner of my bedroom and want to play chase. Even if I wasn't completely undressed or redressed, I would chase her down the hall into the living room where we would play tug-of-war with baby.
One of her favorite things to do was chase squirrels. All Charles would have to say is "squil" and CoCo would take off, her head in the air looking for that squirrel.
RIDING
CoCo loved to "go." Sometimes she would get so excited about going for a ride that she would have to run around the house first. She would love to hang her head out of the window with her paws on the door. She would stand with her back legs balanced on my left leg. Her arch enemy was "white dog" a spitz in our neighborhood that attacked her one day. CoCo would love to ride by white dog's house and bark and growl like crazy. When Charles got the black truck he would take her riding in the back. She would prop her feet up on the tire covering. Charles used to take her to the bank, post office and Wal-Mart. She would love to go to the bank, because they gave her a treat. He said when they got home that she would never forget she had a treat. If he forgot it, she would bark at him to get it out of the car. He said if the bank didn't give her a treat he would have to get one at home and pretend it was from the bank. He used to take her to the convention center. He would hit golf balls and she would run around. He also used to take her to the cemetery and to see the ducks. She would be so happy to go that she would reach up and lick him on the face to say "thank you." She did the same to me.
BARKING
CoCo loved to bark and was known by the neighbors for her yapping. Sometimes she would lay out in the driveway and bark incessantly for no reason. But she would never run off. She just sat out there barking, I guess to protect our house and let everybody know she was in charge.
BATHS
She hated taking a bath and would hide when she saw me grab the towels, brush and shampoo and start the water running. She would run to Charles for him to save her. After her bath she would run into the big pillows I kept in the living room and later in Charles' office and nose her way into them. Sometimes when she went potty we had to wipe her booty. She got used to it and would stand patiently and wait for it. Any time I took her outside to potty Charles always asked me "Did you check her butt?"
SLEEPING
In the summer, CoCo loved to sleep in our bathroom on the cool tile floor. When it got colder she moved to her pillow in the corner of our bedroom. Sometimes she would want to sleep with us and I would love it. At some point she would always lay beside me with her head on the pillow right beside mine. Sometimes she would lay so close to me that you couldn't get a pin between us. Her body was so warm and her breathing so peaceful that she often reminded me of a child sleeping beside me.
When she was younger if she got up before Charles, she would run to his side of the bed and bark at him to get up. Sometimes he would say "okay CoCo, I'm getting up" or "CoCo I don't want to get up now, let me sleep." But she would continue to bark until he got up. She would come in the living room, her tail wagging like her mission was accomplished because her Daddy was up. In fact, even if she were in the middle of eating and he walked in, her tail would start wagging.
When Charles was in his office working, she would either jump up into the blue chair or nose her way behind the big pillows and take a nap. She always wanted to be where we were.
INTELLIGENT
CoCo was so smart. Charles taught her how to shake and sit at different times and it only took 15 minutes for her to learn. She never quite learned how to come though. Mostly because she was stubborn. Charles would have to yell meanlike COME HERE, COCO for her to finally come.
WALKING
When CoCo was a puppy we would take her walking using a blue lease. She would pull so hard that it was her that was walking us. In later years, we did away with the lease and just let her walk beside us. She had to sniff everything and pee about a hundred times but she always kept with me and didn't run off. Sometimes Kitty would go with us the whole block. Sometimes she would meet "friend dog" sniff him hello and then bark him away.
LOVING
CoCo was so loving and affectionate. She liked nothing better than having her belly rubbed. She also liked to get in between my legs when I was standing, so that I would bend over and scratch her back legs. On Sunday afternoons I would sit on the couch and read the paper with her beside me. She would nose the paper up away from me sometimes just so I would love on her and give her some attention. After she got some loving she would move to the end of the couch and sleep until I got up. When we had the blue couch it was low enough for her to jump up on. She was never able to jump on the new gold couch although she tried.
BEING LEFT
CoCo hated being left, particularly if you were packing a suitcase to go. Charles carries a large brief case when he leaves to go to work. CoCo would pitch a fit when she saw him grab that briefcase because she knew he was fixing to go. However, when he came home, she was so happy to see him. You could hear her barking before you even got out of the car. If either one of us got home before the other, we would have to let CoCo run out to greet us. A lot of times I had to make sure I didn't hit her driving up. But she would always be at my car door when I opened it, tail wagging with a smile on her face. When Charles would leave and be gone a long time, CoCo would sit at the end of the driveway and wait for him to come home. If he was spending the night out, she would finally give up and come in. Whenever we came home, CoCo was so happy. She would dance around and literally wag her whole body. I'll never forget seeing her little head even turning from side to side and she would be grinning. CoCo was the happiest and her whole world was complete when we were all home together(MomMa, Daddy & CoCo).