In Memoriam: Oreo the Adorable
Just one week after losing Lily, our very first chihuahua (super sweet, adorable, fashionable, and an unofficial UCSB mascot), we went to the Santa Barbara Humane Society just to see if they happened to have any chihuahuas by chance. When we walked in the front door and asked about chihuahuas, the staff giggled and said "follow us!" We walked outside to a pen with more than 15 chihuahuas! It was at the same time of the celebrity chihuahua boom (inspired by Paris Hilton), and unfortunately, many of these adorable pups got adopted and then their owners realized they had to put in effort to take care of them and dumped them.
But, lucky for us, that meant we had lots of options to choose from. Trevor sat down in the pen and nearly all the chihuahuas swarmed him for pets and cuddles. I looked over in the corner and saw little Oreo sitting on a rock in the sunshine with his tongue hanging out - not bothered by anything else - and thought "He's the one!" So we adopted him on the spot!
Oreo came to live with us in Goleta while I wrapped up my final year in the UCSB Education doctoral program. With his all black coat, we got him a fancy LED glow in the dark collar for night walks (our street didn't have many lights). When I took him out at night, I could often only see the collar (which would hilariously spook people walking by).
Then, I got my job at UMass Amherst, and we packed everything up and put Oreo in his own special pet carrier and boarded a plane to the east coast. Oreo sat under the seat in front of me and was pretty chill the entire flight.
We moved into Rolling Green apartments in Amherst and Oreo helped us make friends (who are now basically family!) with our new neighbors - Sandy and Catie. Every morning when I took Oreo out to the backyard, he'd run straight to Sandy's door. Soon enough we were hanging out on Sandy's porch together while Oreo enjoyed all the pets and cuddles with Sandy. It was at Rolling Green that Oreo experienced his first snow (Spoiler: He was NOT a fan!), went sledding, and spent time with me swinging in the hammock.
Then, we moved to our new house in Hadley. Oreo got his very own giant backyard to run around in - as long as he dodged the local red tailed hawks and bobcats (we put extra fences up!). With the new house, we were not restricted to the number of pets we could own, so we went to a local animal shelter and fell in love with Chloe - an 8 year old chihuahua who was dressed to impress (can't pass up a chihuahua that already loves clothes!!). Chloe and Oreo became brother and sister.
Chloe is quite an attention hog, so she would often sit on Oreo's face if we even looked his way. But Oreo never minded it. Later on, Oreo would return the favor by sitting on Chloe when he wanted to cuddle and sleep.
These two enjoyed many many years of photoshoots for all seasons and occasions. And they were always featured in my course slides as a way to bring cheer to my students.
While Oreo was known for sticking his tongue out on occasion, after some severe gum disease, he lost most of his teeth and his tongue stayed out permanently. Everyone loved it!! It brought me so much joy to sneak a look over to him and see his tongue just chilling out or, on many occasions, being stuck to the pillow he was on.
Unfortunately, Oreo faced a number of health problems and even though he recovered from a stroke where he lost the feeling in his back right leg (that didn't stop him from learning to run in new ways!) and from an overly enlarged heart that was so big we could feel his heartbeat through his chest rather easily, finally the health problems caught up to him and even though he fought as long as he could and outlasted many expectations, it was time for him to say goodbye.
Oreo passed away because his physical heart just got too big, but I also think that represents who he was as a pup - a pup with a golden heart who brought so much love and joy to every single person he met.
On a positive note, I setup a fundraiser to encourage donations to the Santa Barbara Humane Society so that Oreo's memory would live on. In just a week, he raised enough money to help 2 new pets get full care and adoption. So, even post-life, Oreo is making a difference and bringing joy and love to others.
We will truly miss this legend. What a huge loss for our family! Goodbye Oreo.
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