Ripken — A loving mentor to many GoldHeart fosters
Ripken 4/19/2002 – 6/13/2014
Ripken went to the Rainbow Bridge very suddenly having shown no obvious signs of the liver cancer that took his life way too soon for me. Though not a GoldHeart rescue, Ripken welcomed many fosters into his home. He and his buddy Cooper showed them by example what living in their household should look like.
He was an incredibly intelligent, spirited and clever fellow with a wonderful ‘joie de vivre’. He was game for just about anything you asked of him and some things you didn’t. His tail was always wagging even when you were scolding him as if to say, “Ahh, lighten up mom!†and you just had to laugh. One game he ‘invented’ was to drop a ball in a shoe then toss the shoe until it came out then play the game all over again. Training the out-of-sight stays for the obedience ring after earning his first title was amusing to him if not to me as invariably I’d look around the corner only to find him on the other side grinning with that tail going a hundred miles an hour doing anything but a stay. I was the one to go home ‘tail between my legs’ on more occasions than I care to admit. He’d be happy as a clam. He never could stay in one place very long for fear of missing something.
Everything else about training he loved and was a quick study. Go figure. The teamwork we developed doing obedience paid off when I decided to foster. He made everything look like fun and they wanted to be part of it. To say I miss him terribly is an understatement and Cooper is not himself without his buddy. To say rest in peace isn’t fitting as I’m sure he’s still grinning with that tail going fast as ever as he runs to greet Cooler, Drifter, Sadie, Gordy and Beau at the bridge as if to say “Wanna play and by the way, are there any Jolly Balls around here!â€
Farewell, my Song N Dance Man. You will be forever in my heart.
Jill Gerhart