Lennier We let Lennier go this afternoon. He’s the oldest dog we’ve ever had at 16 years, 4½ months, and was happy and active until the very end. Which is a miracle because he had a crazy amount of things wrong with him, including Megaesophagus, Myasthenia gravis, and some sort of inflammatory bowel disease. He got a steady dose of medication by the end, eight different times during the day and night. He came to us on March 31st, 2012 from Andrea’s mushing partner Bonnie. He was part of a “Babylon 5” litter with Lennier, Delenn, Minbar, Zathras, Dukhat, Tada! (later know as Daisy Tada!), Talia, and G’Kar, and as far as we know, he outlived all of them. For a few years Dukhat lived just up the road and Lennier would look over on our walks when we’d tell him his brother was living over there. Of all the dogs we’ve had, Lennier had the biggest personality. He was the silliest, most active, loudest, funniest, sometimes the fastest, one of the strongest, snuggliest, and as anyone knows who visited us, sometimes one of the most annoying. He’d bully the other dogs for his favorite bed or toy or anything else he wanted, but was never serious about it and despite the attitude, he was never the boss. When a moose was outside he’d pace back and forth between the sliding glass door futon window until we let him out to bark, and point at the moose. Pointing at a moose Mr. Silly Early on we put him in an airline crate when we left the house because he’d occasionally destroy dog beds if he was left alone. We discovered just how unique he was when we came home find to him curled up on his favorite bed, next to the crate he’d ripped his way out of. We eventually built a dog barn for him and the other dogs, his door built with a reinforced window to keep him safe. Escape artist When he was younger he’d go for walks with me on the trails, run to the end of the dog yard and back over and over, chasing a tennis ball launched via Chuckit, or later chunks of wood, and loved warping around the yard chasing and being chased by our other dogs. He was the only dog that would reliably play with Nika’s plastic ball, and chunks of ice from the water bowl, batting the ball or ice puck around with his paws and nose. He didn’t enjoy water like Nika did, but he also wasn’t afraid of it. When the dog yard flooded in 2014, he was out there with Andrea wading around. Goldstream Creek flood, July 2, 2014 As he got older, he got snugglier, and once Piper and Jenson were gone, his favorite spot was up on the couch next to us. At the end he could barely make it up there, but even on his last night, he spent a few hours next to Andrea after I’d gone to bed. He had some sundowner in him and for his last few years Andrea would stay up late with him when I went to bed and more often than not, when Andrea came up to bed he’d pace around and stand at the bottom of the stairs until I came down to sleep with him on the futon, him nestled in on my legs or up by my chest. Sleeping on Andrea, with his Kong Getting pets on the couch I don’t expect we’ll ever find a dog with as big a personality as he had, and we will really miss him now that he’s gone. His absence means we have lost all our animals, our house truly empty after all these years. Kong play, everyone else trying to stay out of the way Lennier playing with Tallys Fresh wood chips Cold lasering Monte and Lennier Surveying his domain Lennier’s favorite bed Out on his cot, in the sun