Farewell to Mara

Mara was my beloved first solo dog, who I adopted from Big Fluffy Dog Rescue in 2016. She was around two years old at that point and confused and alarmed by me, the new place and everything that was happening. I met the foster at a rest stop and Mara was completely uninterested in me. She warmed up pretty quickly, asking for pets and snuggles.



She loved going for adventures, to my parents' farm, solo camping with me, to parks, down the street, in the woods and everywhere she could. She loved trying to hunt rodents and succeeded at hunting rabbits, mice and once, a squirrel. She hated large birds and would chase them around. She barked at everyone and everything outside and held "The Borking Hour" regularly at 6pm most nights.



Mara loved the cold and snow above any other season and would do zoomies in the snow as much as she could, taking me for dashes through the snow and snowplowing with her face. She loved sleeping on snow, in the yard and on the balcony when it was cold.



She loved me above anything else and merely tolerated every other human who had to interact with her. Only I was allowed to spoon her, give her belly rubs and brush her. There was nothing funnier than her begrudgingly allowing a family member or friend to pet her head. She allowed it but made her irritation about it very clear. She liked other dogs and enjoyed sniffing cats and was extremely alarmed by cows and horses.

The last year was so hard with all of her mobility issues but until the end, she enjoyed keeping an eye on the neighborhood from the balcony and sniffing things all around the house.



Goodbye, Mara.