Everyones favourite Jessie ♥

My beautiful little girl Jessie passed away on Sunday 25th May.

Jessie lived a long, happy, (and at times, lazy!) life. Jessie was a German Shepherd Cross Dingo. Hehe, she always looked like a dingo until she got a bit of middle aged spread. She was a smart dog, she didn't take unnecessary risks; she was very careful with herself and her inherent wariness of strange people and situations made sure she lived to a ripe old age. That's not to say that she was not without fun!....

Jessie was born 16 years ago at the Luddenham farm. She was the smallest and most timid pup from a litter of 10. Her mum was the gorgeous Skitcher, who was Alex's pride and joy and was a fantastic and loving mother.

Skitty

Jessie was always Skitcher's favourite, and so she often got lots of extra love, attention, and backscratching. Poor Skitty never got back rubs in return but never seemed to care.

Jessie smiling for the camera

Her early life involved playing with her brothers and sisters and having a ball of time. They were all beautiful but Jessie seemed a bit more timid and in need of extra nurturing, and so I kept Jessie while all her brothers and sisters left home. Jessie was my first OWN dog and I LOVED her! She had this cute big snout and huge paws that were too big for her body. As she got older she developed curly hair under her tail that Alex used to call "SWIRLS!". We did everything together. When she was about 3 months I took Jessie to puppy pre-school. She seemed traumatised by this, and seemed to become more fearful after this experience! (Although she was always the smartest and best behaved puppy there!).

We used to do tricks. Jessie was very good at sit and stay! She couldn't do fancy stuff like dance or anything, but only because she was too smart to bring herself to that level! She did know "GENTLE" which meant to take the food GENTLY! We used to ride around the farm on the motorbike - Jessie upfront in a crate.

Jessie loved swimming and also loved bushwalking. We have been on MANY hikes together. Jessie adored her bush walks and as soon as I grabbed her lead and sqealed "WALKIES!!!" she would run around in circles wagging her tail and saying "LETS GO!". In her earlier years, Jess was very agile at some of the tracks we traversed - some of these were steep mountainsides and some bordered on cliffs (oops, sorry mum!).

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Jessie conquers the 6 foot track from Katoomba to Jenolan Caves

As she got much older, we stopped doing these walks together, although we would still do lots of trails.

She's been in most of NSW's national parks (oops, sorry again mum!). She's seen much of the state, little Jessie. She's been around many areas of Sydney and Blue Mountains, down South including Mittagong, Bowral, MossVale etc, across to the East including Newcastle and Gosford, out West including Bathurst, Mudgee, Lithgow and up north including Windsor, Wisemans Ferry and the Hunter Valley.

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Up to Newnes to master the fierce Pipeline track. Jessie is unstoppable!

She lived through my troubled times with me, always standing by my side. She moved into my first house when I left home for the first time at Guildford with Annalisa. She has gone with me to Wagga for 5 years and then here to Tamworth.

She was very happy at Wagga. When I moved to Beckwith Street, Darrin wooed me through the stomach of my dog. He used to visit every day bearing big yummy Schmacko's for Jessie. Jessie thought this was great and they quickly became great friends. When we moved to East Street Jessie had to learn to live with Deifer who was always eager to play rougher than she was willing.

Later Lobo came along and she had to perserve with Lobos weird antics of following her around ALL day.

But Jessie was always a very tolerant dog and steadfast and just took it in her stride. She made great friends with Kiara and was very gentle around her. Only twice in her life was she a bit naughty, once when she ate dad's prize sheep and another time when she ate our duck. Oops. Her belly often got her in trouble!

Jess was at Mum and Dads for 2 years while I was working at the hospital and living at Piper Street. She gained a few too many kilos on a diet of dad's huge pigouts.

She always loved her food and would eat everything placed in front of her given the chance. When she came back to Tamworth to live with us, she went on a diet and was walked daily again and looked very slim and stunning. We bought Bonnie so she would have company during the day and (most of the time!) they got on really well and Bonnie made sure Jessie didn't get TOO lazy.

(Jessie "plays" with the frisbee")

She would walk down to the river every day with us. Often she would go for a swim. She loved going for rolls in the smelliest stuff she could find down there such as poos and dead fishes. There was even tricky bits on this walk, such as a steep hill and river crossings, but Jessie just took them in her stride. Jessie had always followed me EVERYWHERE, she was just like the Terminator - virtually nothing would stop her from following me. Although in the last 3 months she couldn't get down to the river, so we would just walk down the backyard; although sometimes she would have to be enticed by Dine kibbles! Coming back she would always skip because she knew it was dinner time!! (Just before dinner was Jessie's most active time of the day, often miracously losing 10 years of age and developing super-dog abilities).

Jess psyching herself for the return back to the house

Last year when we were coming back from our walk, the neighbours pig dogs both attacked poor Jess. It took her a while to do that walk again, but eventually she overcome her fears and learned to love the walk again.

Jess went to Sydney with me on Mother's day and had been at mum and dads for the last 3 weeks. I was due to pick up her next weekend and we were going to take her to the new house we bought. One of the reasons we bought this house was because it had no stairs for Jessie! Darrin says he's going to give her a piece of his mind when he catches up with her for not waiting around for our house! I was really looking forward to bringing Jess to our new home, and for taking her for walks up to the top paddock every day, but perhaps Jess was just tired and wanted to stay at her home where she grew up.

She had a long and happy life was very loved and that's what matters. Jess is, and always will be, sadly missed. I know she is up there with Skitty now, having lots of fun playing like a pup again.

♥♥♥