LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY DOG ZAZU

Alex McLaughlin - February 2, 2013

Well, actually all our dogs belong to my wife Mary Jo. But sometimes when she is not looking and I feel real brave I tell people that they are my dogs too. Zazu passed away on Thursday of this past week.

Here is Mary Jo's tribute to Zazu, “Zazu, 80 pounds of sweet and stubborn, died today at age 15. Zazzy was a shepherd/malamute mix who was pulled from a kennel in VA years ago and lived in rescue three years. She lived with Alex’s mother on the farm for two and one half years. Though she had room to run, she was a homebody who loved her house and human and stayed close to both. She was our baby for over five years and her best friend was Enzo a male cocker mix, who probably added years to her life. We love you, Big Girl - till we meet again.”

When my daughter found Zazu on the Internet she was already named Zazu and Mom kept the name. I once asked how Enzo got his name and Mary Jo said, “ I always wanted to name a dog Enzo.”

But I have been married long enough to seek the path of least resistance and so I merely said, “yes dear”. If I ever find out the answer you all will be the first to know.

Zazu was simply the most stubborn and one of the most wonderful dogs that we ever had. Mary Jo always tried to keep Zazu on a diet and one of our friends accused her jokingly of starving Zazu.

Mary Jo generally is a proponent of tough love. But I later learned that she gave both Enzo and Zazu several dog treats in the morning. Zazu loved to eat and if she ever felt that the food was not there on time, she would stomp her paw on the floor. Now an 80-pound dog can really stomp.

Zazu was smart as she could be but she simply would not do anything that she did not want to do. She was a good dog, never destroyed anything, wasn’t a barker and didn’t get into fights except with Duchess a pit-bull mix that we fostered. Duchess got the best of her once. But Zazu, who was generally peaceful but abnormally strong, bid her time and got the best of Duchess in revenge. Over all the years we had never had dogs fight before and as difficult as it was we gave duchess up because Zazu had seniority and family ties for the time she spent as Mom’s sidekick.

My memories will always be of Zazu and Enzo running around together. We are getting a new dog from foster care to buddy up with Enzo and somewhere in Greenbrier County my daughter is scheming to get a cat for Mary Jo. I am not much of a cat person and we have never had a cat. If you ever see Mary Jo you can tell her that you heard about Zazu but goodness gracious don’t ever tell her about “my dog Zazu.”

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