Story by Jon Stalnaker AKA The Studebaker Dude
My heart is broken. Our dog Sally, just over 15 years old, passed away yesterday. She was 18 months old when she came to live with us. Carlene and I were holding her in our arms as she closed her eyes for the last time, surrounded by love and tears. She had been slowing down a bit, and we were painfully aware that the life expectancy of a dog like her had already been achieved. We took her to the vet with the fear that it might be a one-way trip for her, and it was.
It was just a bit over 15 years ago when we had a similar experience with Elvis, our first dog for us as a family. She was special too (yes, I said “she”). I had other dogs in my life, but Carlene taught me how to love a dog with Elvis. I had insisted that Elvis stay outside at night and Carlene tried to convince me I was wrong, but no… I was a total jerk back then and Carlene had the patience of a saint until I came to my senses.
I was too sick to go to work, and Carlene left for her job while I spent the day in bed. When she came home, she found me in bed being comforted by Elvis. From that day, Elvis was an indoor dog and was even welcome to sleep on our bed. I can’t imagine why I had a problem with that in the first place.
Carlene taught me how to love a dog, and I am forever grateful for how she turned me around. Elvis was the first dog I ever had that I appreciated, and we were very close. There came a day when Elvis could no longer tolerate this world and I had to send her across the rainbow bridge.
It was done in a special chapel they had at the UC Davis hospital. We were with her just like we were with Sally. It was beautiful, but I do not handle this sort of thing very well. Yeah, I’m a crybaby…just ask my fellow bus drivers. After Elvis died I was a zombie. I needed to get another dog, but Carlene wasn’t ready. It took me several weeks to convince her we needed another dog right away.
We went to the animal shelter in Sacramento to look at dogs we saw online. The one I wanted to check out was big like Elvis, but I wanted a smaller dog. So, we were looking at the smaller dogs and Carlene noticed Sally (at that time her name was Cookie). Carlene pointed her out and I glanced over and said, “uh huh, what else they got?” I looked around some more, but Carlene brought me back to Cookie. We took her to an area where we could spend time with her and she liked Carlene, but she wasn’t impressed with me.
Carlene talked me into giving her a chance, so we did the paperwork and brought her home. She was named Mustang Sally as a tribute to Wilson Pickett but, being a Studebaker guy, the Mustang part soon became implied and so, Sally it was. On the way home, I believe she sensed that I was the one that was broken, and she laid her head on my arm. From that moment on, she was my dog. She was exactly what I needed, and Carlene is a genius when it comes to selecting dogs. As is typical in our relationship, Carlene was right.
Sally was a sweet dog that loved going places with us. We took her to Studebaker meetings and car shows and she traveled with us when we headed for the coast, or to another state to visit family, or attend a big car show.
All of our friends in the Studebaker world loved Sally. I even let her ride on the bus with me. That turned out to be a bad idea as I placed her in a crate in the back of the bus in the aisle, where she could see me. I would take her for a walk in the park while I was waiting for another call. Unfortunately, she got sick being in the crate because it was a much rougher ride in the back of the bus. She would have been just fine sitting in the seat right behind me, but I didn’t do that again. All the passengers liked seeing her.
Everybody loved Sally. I used to walk her a lot. We lived just a couple of blocks away from a park, and she loved our walks. When I started doing serious walking, like 10k to 20k steps a day, she was right there with me. I tried to figure out how many steps she had to take to keep up with me, but I couldn’t figure out the math. She didn’t mind; she loved our walks.
It was around April of 2024 when we decided to become a 2-dog family. It took us 2 tries to get it right, but by June 13, 2024, I posted a picture showing our new dog with Sally and Carlene and the cat. We named her KayDee but we have been calling her PeeWee for some time now. The justification was to get Sally a friend that she could get close to. She was friends with the neighbor’s dogs but couldn’t get any closer than the fence.
I was afraid that Sally was getting older and we would have to face the same event that we did with Elvis. I thought if I already had another dog that I could better deal with losing Sally. It did work better this time as I am comforted with PeeWee to cuddle with. The only thing I didn’t consider is how PeeWee would react to the loss of Sally. She has certainly noticed something is up, as she keeps looking for Sally. I can’t explain it to her, so this may take a while. Poor PeeWee, she just doesn’t understand.
RIP Sally – Thanks for being such a great bestie.
