Saying Goodbye

As many of you know we said goodbye to our sweet Jeter.  It feels strange and wrong even typing that sentence.  In fact it took me a good 10 minutes to come up with that pathetic title for this post, but nothing seems to do.  It feels wrong and leaves a huge lump in my throat to even consider him gone.  Jeter was a true companion.  Seriously, I know people love their dogs, but Jeter was different.  He was the kindest, most docile, loving dog I've ever been around.  I wasn't raised with big dogs, but Jeter completely changed my view on them.  Here's a little background in case you never had the pleasure of loving him. (If you're not a dog person this is your cue to go to the next blog).

Jason bought Jeter from a fraternity brother for $100 in August of 1999.  Fast forward a whopping 4 days, and Jason and I went on our first blind date my first week of college!!  I was a freshman, having just pledged Kappa, and now hanging around with this cute guy who had an ADORABLE yellow, butterball of a puppy.  My mom always jokes that the only reason I started dating Jason was because of Jeter.  Just ask a member of my pledge class and many of them have stories of hanging out with Jeter.  He was like our little mascot through college and had many late nights on Dexter and Antelope.
After college, Jeter went to Houston to live with Gigi and Papa J (Jason's parents) while Jason lived in a condo.  He LOVED his year at Shiloh, their home.  Swimming in their pond and spending lazy days out in the sun on their beautiful property.  This became his favorite "vacation spot" and to the day he left us, a part of him always longed to be at Shiloh.  Then in July 2004, Jason and I were married and the three of us moved into our first house in Katy.  Jeter was our 1st baby and we loved spoiling him.  On rainy nights, Jeter loved to jump in the bed between us.  We spent five wonderful years together, before Griffin was born in 2009.  Things changed of course for our sweet lab, but he took it in stride and loved our new little boy like he was his own.  Jeter loved the new attention from Griffin and never once showed signs of jealousy.  We moved to our new house in November of 2010 and Ella was born in February 2011.  Ella and Jeter had a special bond.  She loved his slobbery kisses and he let her crawl all over him.  She gave him kisses and hugs all the time.  The past several months have been rough.  We knew Jeter was in some pain from arthritis, but blood tests we had done showed his organs to be in good health.  He was still eating and wagging his tail until his last day.  I am thankful he didn't seem to suffer and passed away peacefully in the backyard on Wednesday, February 15th.
I can't even begin to say how heartbroken I am over the loss of my companion.  Jeter was there from the very beginning of our relationship and something just feels wrong without him.  He truly was a best friend to me in so many ways.  Jason travels a lot for work and Jeter has always been a close second.  He always slept right next to my side of the bed. I miss him in a way that just hurts down to my core.  There will never be another dog like Jeter, he was so gentle, loving, and had a heart of pure gold.  We love you Jeter Peter and will never forget what a wonderful member of our family you were!