Margot Butterbean: One of One

Margot Butterbean passed yesterday. She had advanced cancer in her kidney and was in a lot of pain. Laura, Ruby, and I snuggled her while she left us.

She's been a part of our lives through nearly every milestone. She was the first dog Laura and I got together. She lived in the first house we rented, the first house we bought, and our current home. She met Ruby when we brought her home from the hospital, and seven years later met Gus when we brought him home. She loved both of them most of the time. Looking back through old photos, Ruby got most of the snuggles, and Gus was watched from afar, always waiting for him to pounce. But she loved Gus before he was born, never leaving Laura's side and resting on her pregnant belly.

She had speckle dots, razor claws, and terrible breath. Her homing beacon kept her close, patrolling the edges of the yard but never leaving. Circle taught her how to love food to the point of obsession, and she kept that until the morning she left us.

Laura sent me a text one day from the pound. She was with a friend who was getting a dog. She said she found a puppy she adored and wanted to bring it home. I told her if she did, I would eat it for dinner. The next morning, a Saturday, I think, Laura asked why I was up early getting ready. Because we're going to get a new puppy. We took our friend Art with us. Margot was shaky, terribly nervous. She had been abused by a man at some point in her fresh life and carried that fear of all men, something she'd work through but never fully recover from. Iris was her name on the tag hanging from the kennel. That didn't feel right. Laura named her Margot. Margot Butterbean.

We took her home to meet Circle. It took a minute, but soon they started playing. Margot was a complete nightmare — chewing through cords, shredding any paper in reach, and tearing around the room like a maniac — while Circle looked on with wide, cowering eyes, silently warning the dog that you can't just act like that. After a week of crate training, Margot transformed into the best dog I've ever known: calm, quiet, snuggly, loyal, and very pointy. "She even made her death convenient for us," Laura reflected this morning.

We always wondered what kind of dog she was. We know blue heeler was in there. But her long, skinny legs, puppy-like face, pointed ears, and fox-like bouncing made her something we struggled to identify. In the vet's office, while we were waiting for her to come in for her final goodbye, I gave it one last shot to figure out what she was by asking AI — it told me to do a DNA test. I guess we'll never know. One of one, that pup.