Colette
Name: Colette
Date of Passing: 12/11/2022
Message to Colette: Colette wants everyone to know that dogs are love. Please return that love in the form of treats and cuddles. In return, you will be a better human being. But you'll probably have to say goodbye before you're ready to say goodbye.
Tell us about Colette: Colette came from PAWS, the no-kill shelter, in Chicago, Illinois. It's hard to imagine a family giving her up, but we don't know where she came from prior to PAWS. Her name at the shelter was Molette. (I know...What???) Almost immediately, we swapped the faint suggestion of the Three Stooges for a more dignified moniker that rhymed. Colette was an angel in dog form. Don't let that fool you–she was a boss. Colette just wanted to be loved, to make humans happy, and to get all the treats possible. She ate anything and everything she could get her jaws around. On her first holiday with guests, she surfed a kitchen counter for all the Xmas candy, but miraculously she didn't get sick. As a young dog, she could clear six vertical feet in a jump from standing. She loved to run, to chase and retrieve the ball, and to eviscerate any toy containing a squeaker. She also eviscerated a few small woodland creatures in her time (my apologies again to the woodchuck with the limp. And to the owner of that turtle, at least we caught her before it got worse!) Colette came into our lives as a companion for Beamer, a husky-shepherd mix about a year her senior. They were BFFs, right off the bat. Only a couple times did she have to put him in his place. As Beamer grew increasingly decrepit over the summer of 2022, Colette worried about him and alerted us when something was wrong. She didn't want him to be in trouble, either. After Beamer died in October, Colette's own lymphoma grew aggressively, all too swiftly slowing her body, but hardly affecting her tenacious spirit. She took her spot on the living room floor and breathed her last breath on Sunday evening, and now she's watching over all of us from the comfy perch on her infinite armchair.