Mindy Bachus
(1991 - 2005)

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General Details

Name:	Mindy Bachus
Gender:	Female
Type of Pet:	Dog
Breed:	Labrador Retriever
Age:	14 years old
Lived:	Tuesday, 1 January 1991 - Tuesday, 1 February 2005

My Story

She came from humble beginnings in a small trailer park south of Grand Rapids, Michigan. We adopted her in early 1991 and named our new yellow lab mix pup Mindy. Over the next 14 years Mindy became an intricate part of

our family. My husband was a Marine working on active duty with a reserve unit until he was promoted to Sergeant Major and received orders back to Camp Pendleton in my home state of California. Mindy adjusted well to life there along with our two young daughters and soon to be houseful of cats.

She had the run of our large backyard with a sweeping view of the Pacific Ocean. There were always plenty of young children coming by to play and Mindy simply adored children. A very large, almost overweight dog, she was as gentle as a lamb...most of the time.

After a year or so at Camp Pendleton we decided to enlarge our family by adding a cat. We adopted a very tiny black kitten named Pepper. Mindy was of course curious of this little hissing ball of fur but took great care to be gentle with her. Probably the main reason was that this little thing had very sharp claws! Pepper calmed down around Mindy for the most part but when she was about a year old she gave birth to six little kittens. Once these kittens were big enough we carefully introduced them to Mindy. She was as gentle with them as if they were her own little puppies. Now Pepper understandably did not like this one bit and, once she had the chance she ran in, snatched one of her babies in her teeth and promptly swatted Mindy in the nose with one of those sharp claws. From that point onward Mindy was terrified of cats. Oh sure she'd bark at one if she saw one run by the yard, but if it got within 10 feet of her she run and hide under the bench swing on our back porch.

We found homes for five of Pepper's kittens but decided to keep one of her little girls that we had become especially attached to. Eventually we settled on the name Chelsea for her after going through a few names the girls had chosen from various Disney movies. She was special because she had an extra toe on each foot and had the sweetest personality of all the kittens. She was used to Mindy even though Mindy would hide at first when she'd see her. Eventually Mindy learned Chelsea was her friend and the two stayed bonded for the remainder of their lives. Pepper was another story, however.

After 4 years at Camp Pendleton, my husband decided it was time to retire. He'd been in the Marine Corps for 22 years at that point and it was time to settle down and put down some roots. We returned to Michigan where he had grown up and this time settled into a smaller town in Northern Michigan right on Lake Michigan. Mindy handled the move and all the transitions like a trooper, much better than the rest of us. She had lived through a cold winter before and loved playing in the snow once again.

Our family expanded yet again when we decided to adopt another dog. This time we chose a chocolate lab and named her Grace. She was just a six weeks old when we brought her home and she followed Mindy around everywhere - much to Mindy's chagrin. A cat she could handle, but a puppy? She tried to ignore her whenever she could but it was difficult. Grace was always crawling all over her and biting at her ears.

We also eventually added on a pet rabbit. He was won at the county fair by my oldest daughter and, although I wasn't sure how well this was going to work out, we kept him. He was an albino rabbit so we named him Sugar. Sugar grew to be huge and eventually outgrew his cage. We bought him a larger rabbit hutch but when the weather was good I would put him on a tether outside under a big tree so he could run around and enjoy playing in the grass. I put the collar on him that Mindy had worn as a pup and he adjusted well to it. One day we decided to introduce the two of them and I was very leery. Sugar was nervous but Mindy simply sniffed him then walked a few feet away and laid down in the grass. As time went on Sugar realized Mindy was no threat and the two eventually became good friends Some days they could be seen lying next to each other in the grass. At other times Chelsea would join in and the three would hang out under the big tree enjoying the great outdoors. I'm sure this turned a lot of heads in passing cars.

Mindy was always very protective of her little girls and her two furry friends. She had more than once chased away a large neighborhood dog that had threatened one of my girls in the backyard. Once it had chased my

youngest back into our yard and actually bit her on the rear! Mindy came to the rescue by chasing him home, barking and growling the whole way. As Grace grew she started chasing Chelsea as she had never bonded with her the way Mindy had. She also could not be around when Sugar was out on the leash but on a few occasions she did manage to break loose and chased poor Sugar around the yard. I had never heard a rabbit scream before until the first time that happened. Mindy however would always run to his aid as well as to Chelsea's when needed. As a result of this, Mindy and Grace never became the good buddies I'd hoped they would. As time went by and Mindy grew into an elderly dog, they had to be separated at all times because Grace would attack Mindy unprovoked. We had considered finding a new home for Grace but the girls loved her too much and this was her only bad side. So the two had to be put into two separate kennels in the backyard from then on.

Mindy grew older and her eye sight began to fail her. Her hearing wasn't it what it used to be either. She developed a skin tag on her rear end. The vet told us we could have it removed but it was harmless and it didn't appear to bother her so we left it alone. It looked like a big wad of light pink bubblegum. One time a little boy informed me "Hey Lady, your dog has gum on his butt!!!". When Mindy reached 14 years of age she began having seizures. They were sporadic and we weren't able to figure out an exact cause but eventually we decided she needed to be euthanized. The seizures were happening more and more frequently and she was clearly in a lot of pain. It hurt us to see our sweet doggie suffering so much. My youngest daughter had actually been born just a few months after we brought Mindy home so she had known her for her entire life. The girls were teenagers now but they hugged her and cried before they left for school that morning, knowing Mindy wouldn't be waiting for them when they came home.

Yes, she once ate her own vomit at a child's backyard birthday party to the horror of a dozen 6 year-olds and their parents. Yes, she smelled bad at times and passed a lot of gas. Yes, she once went into hysterics during a 21-gun salute on Pearl Harbor Day and rammed through our sliding screen door. Yes, she once singled handedly ate my entire rose garden. Yes, she once ate a whole box of crayons and left rainbow colored poops all over our back yard. And yes, she once ran head on into my nearly 1 year old daughter who was just starting to walk, knocking the wind out of her. We knew this was an accident and that Mindy felt badly about it. But Mindy was a one of a kind dog. How many dogs do you know who's two best friends are a cat and a rabbit?

And now we know that Mindy waits for us, along with Chelsea, Pepper, Sugar and Grace at the Rainbow Bridge. I hope Grace isn't chasing them around but I do know that they are safe as long as Mindy is there.