Memories of Miles - Nice List

As I stated the other day in my post about some of Miles' naughty misdeeds over the years, the good things about him and the things he did right far outweigh the bad.  This one is going to be lengthy since I feel like I have to explain or tell a story with everything on the list so if you don't want the details, come back another day for a different post.

Without further ado, here's my list of some of the great things about Miles:

• When he was young, Miles would cower and make himself dead weight as soon as he realized the water running in the tub was meant for him.   In the past few years this changed and he would hop into the tub for a bath on command.  All I had to do was point and tell him to "get in the tub" and he was there.
• While he was very friendly to pretty much anyone he met, Miles had a keen sense of good vs. bad in people. On one particular occasion, I had a few people come to give us bids on replacing some windows in the house. He was fine with every single person that came...except one. A pair of guys from one company came together and Miles did NOT approve of one of them. The entire time they were here, he growled anytime the guy talked, got even more agitated when he'd get close to me, and he didn't calm down until the guy left. We never had those men come back.
• Miles was always very careful and gentle with babies and kids alike but he really had a thing for babies. He was still a young pup when I watched a friend's infant one day. I told Miles to stay away from the baby in the car seat/carrier and placed it in the kitchen where he wasn't supposed to go (we boundary trained him). Very slowly but surely, he literally "crawled" along on his tummy, closer and closer until he was right next to the baby's carrier. He didn't bother the little boy, he just wanted to be close to it and happily laid there as long as I let him.
• He never complained or whined when getting a check-up or shots at the vet's office - he actually liked going there.  He was very stoic and would just stand there and take whatever was coming without complaint.
• Miles absolutely LOVED the UPS man and the mail carrier. He would initially bark upon hearing the UPS truck but as soon as he saw our regular UPS guy coming up the walk, he'd be whining at the front window to be let out front for a visit. The UPS man liked Miles in return and would always stop to rub/pet him and talk to him for a minute. As for the mail carrier, if Miles was able to get out front when the truck pulled up to the mailbox, he'd run out there and climb up onto the steps of the truck for a hello. I can't tell you how many times I had to call him back so that the mail carrier could continue on his/her way.
• Going along with Miles being good with babies, Hudson was born when Miles was about 3 years old. He was Hudson's personal play thing and step stool until Hudson was probably about 2 years old.  Miles never growled or did anything around either of our kids to make us worry.  If he got tired of the treatment, he'd just quietly get up and go somewhere else.
• He was concerned when he could tell that something was wrong with someone in our family.  When one of the kids or I would cry, he was quick to come and check on us or sit with us as we cried.  When someone was sick, it was obvious that he was worried and he laid low and stayed closer than usual.  He was very much in tune with what was happening within our family.
• He remembered the people who loved him (and he loved in return) and was always eager to spend time with them when they'd visit. He loved my dad, my hubby's dad, the vet, my Aunt Shivaun, the carpet cleaning guy, the UPS man (as mentioned above), my brother's girl Abby, my niece Courtney (I swear they would have married each other had species not been an issue), and a number of our kids' friends.
• Other than a short time period when he tried to make the living room couch his bed, he was always obedient about our no furniture rule and would only hop up when given the okay (which was very rare until the last few weeks of his life when we were total suckers and allowed him up on the family couch every evening).
• Miles was one smart cookie.  He was very easy to boundary train - both at our old house and here - and learned how to use a dog door with nothing more than going out and back in once.  We watched other people's dogs on a couple of occasions (one of them in particular was hailed as being the smartest dog her owner had ever met) and in spite of our showing them over and over again, neither of them ever grasped the whole dog door concept...dumb as doornails.  It drove me crazy.

I think that my need for writing therapy over Miles' passing is finished.  I only cried while typing the first post about him (I've made great progress!) and I don't feel like there's anything else I need to get out.

 

I will say that it sure was nice to have an easy topic for three posts.  Now to knock out 14 more by the end of the year...yikes.