I just got word from Mutti (my Mom), that our beloved family dog, Montague, is in doggy heaven. Monty has been in our family for about 10 years--10 years that have included many fond memories of our favorite beagle (sorry Snoopy).

Here's a pic from when he was just a pup

Dog lovers everywhere will agree that the love and joy dogs bring into our lives far outweighs the poop scooping and the difficult time we face when the dogs pass on. Here are a few of our fondest memories of Montague Brough Terry.

One thing I will never forget about Monty is his cute spotted belly. The family knows that I'm an expert on his belly because of what HE trained me to do. Like many other dogs, Monty loved his belly to be rubbed and scratched. A ritual that Monty never let me get away from was when I would get home from pretty much anywhere he would run to the middle of the living room and plop down on his back...sort of like this:

He just wouldn't let me get away from scratching his belly--not that I wanted to.  

Something else that's fun to recall is when we trained Monty to turn on the light switch.  He would hop onto the sofa and flip the switch. This is one of many tricks he learned to do.

One game Monty really enjoyed was after we would finish eating yogurt (or peanut butter) he would love licking what we just couldn't quite get out. He wouldn't rest until ever speck of yumminess was gone.  Most of the time this involved tearing the container to shreds. His tongue wasn't long enough to reach the bottom of the yogurt container and he learned that the easiest way to get to the bottom was tearing the bottom off. It was really interesting to watch. 

Please click here to check M&M and Rake's blogs; they should be posting a few things about Monty as well. We know it's best for him that he's not in pain anymore and hopefully these post will help the rest of us cope with not having him around anymore.