{"id":1320,"date":"2009-07-12T22:56:55","date_gmt":"2009-07-13T05:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/?p=1320"},"modified":"2009-07-14T14:36:31","modified_gmt":"2009-07-14T21:36:31","slug":"goal-four-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/?p=1320","title":{"rendered":"Goal Four: Love"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I saved this post for last to wrap up my good-bye to Artie. \u00a0I think it will be the hardest for me to write. \u00a0More than sleeping, more then eating, more than walking, more than anything else, Artie loved us. \u00a0Totally. \u00a0Completely. \u00a0Unconditionally. \u00a0He showed it every day in so many ways. \u00a0From the way he greeted you at the door to the way he took his guard dog duties so seriously, Artie showered us in love the only way he knew how.<\/p>\n<p>He loved to curl up next to you on the sofa and lay his head in your lap. \u00a0If you knelt beside him on the floor, he&#8217;d always roll over and give you his belly to scratch. \u00a0He loved licking the girls&#8217; after they got out of bath and he&#8217;d lick their faces clean after any messy meal. \u00a0He guarded us with his big bark and scary teeth. \u00a0He&#8217;d patrol the front yard and street from our front window so when we pulled up in the car we&#8217;d see his head peeking over the sill, ears alert and eyes bright. \u00a0Woe to the poor solicitor who knocked on our door and the UPS men would never stick around for me to greet them. \u00a0I don&#8217;t think he&#8217;d really eat them but I never wanted to find out. \u00a0Artie took his job so seriously. \u00a0He always lay in the doorway or faced the open door. \u00a0On walks he&#8217;d scan for unruly bikers, vicious puppies or questionable two year olds. \u00a0We were his people and he kept us safe. \u00a0He kept us happy. \u00a0He kept us loved.<\/p>\n<p>For Kevin, it was the nightly greeting.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Kevina and His Dog\" src=\"\/pictures\/kevandartie.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"645\" height=\"604\" \/><\/p>\n<p>For the girls, it was never ending patience.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Leina and Her Dog\" src=\"\/pictures\/leinaandartie.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"511\" height=\"689\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Kulia and Her Dog\" src=\"\/pictures\/kuliaandartie.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"821\" height=\"595\" \/><\/p>\n<p>For me? \u00a0For me it was constant companionship.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Me and My Dog\" src=\"\/pictures\/meandartie.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"710\" height=\"618\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We will miss you Artie but we will never forget you. \u00a0We will hold you in our hearts and our memories for the rest of our lives. \u00a0 You did your duty to the end and though we will miss you sorely, I know you can rest in peace, secure in the knowledge that no harm fell on us during your watch. \u00a0I guess we&#8217;ll have to take it on our own from here on out.<\/p>\n<p>My puppy, my fat sausage, my farty dog, my sweet old man. \u00a0Thanks for all the walks, all the licks, all the snuggles, and all the love&#8230;..<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>For the soul of every living thing is in the hand of God.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Job 12:10<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I saved this post for last to wrap up my good-bye to Artie. \u00a0I think it will be the hardest for me to write. \u00a0More than sleeping, more then eating, more than walking, more than anything else, Artie loved us. \u00a0Totally. \u00a0Completely. \u00a0Unconditionally. \u00a0He showed it every day in so many ways. \u00a0From the way [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artie"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Kqhb-li","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1320"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1374,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320\/revisions\/1374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}