Trixie Lou was our third Bernese Mountain Dog, born to our first female, Peppermander, in Gig Harbor, WA on November 3, 1999. Trixie was a kind, gentle soul, who never did anything wrong, and is one of the characters in both volumes of I Wish the Rainbow Bridge Had Visiting Hours.
Trixie was very much a living plush toy. Everywhere she went she was mobbed by admirers who wanted their photograph taken with her. There must be hundreds of photos out there with unidentified people and Trixie. She frequently went to work with me at the Turtle Bay Exploration Park in Redding, California; later to my SAIC office in Old Town, San Diego.
One of Trixie’s favorite destinations was Dog Beach in Coronado, California, adjacent to North Island Naval Air Station. In the photograph, Trixie and I are walking north along the beach, the waves and sun on our left shoulders. I am holding a sea star that washed up on the beach and telling Trixie about sea stars before we return the sea star to the sea.
Trixie passed away on October 21, 2009. I was away in Toronto, Ontario, overseeing the air transport of brown-banded bamboo sharks. We didn’t get to say goodbye. I think she planned it that way. I miss her still.
'Makes me miss my dogs and our 3-times-per-week crossing from Aransas Pass to Port Aransas by ferry so we could jog on the beach, a routine that lasted the better part of 4 years until we took a new set of orders😊.