Kayleigh came into my life via the Hamilton Burlington SPCA in 2010, when they found her tied up and left in a field, and they nursed her back to health. But that one horrible act would wind up giving us both nearly 14 years of love and joy.
She was always a quiet girl, a “purple dog” according to the SPCA’s colour coding system… except for the times she would come home from a walk and got the zoomies in the yard.
She never much cared for other dogs… she didn’t mind them, but she loved people because people have pockets and pockets have treats, and Kayleigh never met a treat she didn’t like. She also never met a French fry or a burger she didn’t like. Kayleigh lived to eat.
She was my constant companion for many years, lying on her bed in my office while I worked from home. I was her person, and she went everywhere I could take her. She saw me through good times and bad and I often wondered who rescued whom?
She fell in love with my husband, Nigel, and once he had her seal of approval, we became a family and he fell in love with her, too. It was impossible not to love her sweet, gentle soul. She especially loved my mom and dad, her Uncle Brian and Auntie Val, and her Auntie Wendy and her Auntie Katie…and once you were part of her pack, she would show you by dragging her bed to the front door and barricading you into the house, so you could not leave without her knowledge and say so.
She loved car rides and generally being wherever we were. “Wanna go car ride?” was always met with jumping and running to the door, with boundless excitement, and if she sensed we were going anywhere (and she always could) she would camp out by the front door so that we would not leave her behind.
Our world is a quieter and emptier place without her gentle snorts, soft sighs and tippetty-tapping feet on our floors.
Mama and Nigel will love and miss you always, Sweet Pea, but you will live in our hearts for ever and for always. I am grateful for every day of the nearly 14 years I got to be your mama. You are, and always will be, Mama’s best girl.
Nicknames: Kayleigh Bear, Sweet Pea
Pet parents: Rayna Curtis and Nigel Fellman Greene
Favourite toys: Her many stuffed Chance dogs from PetSmart
Birth/gotcha date: 2010-06-12
Death date: 2024-04-20
Favourite Activity: Eating, going for car rides
Favourite food: Burgers, fries, pizza
Least favourite thing: Being left at home, vegetables not smothered in cheese or gravy
