Life With Tyler
On June 24, 1997, our friend Tyler Greiner was born.
On April 19, 2008, Tyler crossed The Rainbow Bridge.
When one of our friends passes away it is undeniably an unhappy event. Nothing we can ever say or do will make things any different and all of the friends left behind have a hard time smiling for a long time. We try to remember our friends "the way they were". This is very difficult to do. But, please. Take a few moments and look into the eyes of our friend, Tyler, and The Princess will tell you some stories.
My Gram met Tyler's Mom, who is named Kris, when Kris was shopping in the book store in Leesburg and my Gram was managing that very same store. This was before my Gram did the last Career Change she was going to attempt in her life and became a Walker of Dogs. My Gram and Miss Kris were what is called Fast Friends and Forever. That means they knew right away that they liked each other and that they had a lot of things in common. One of those things was Tyler.
Tyler was born with problems in his heart. Just like The Princess has now. Tyler came to live in Virginia in early 2003 and in July of that year, he and my Gram met each other. It was true love immediately. No kidding. Tyler thought my Gram was amazing and wanted to marry her right then and there. Well, not actually to marry her, but it is embarrassing for The Princess to explain exactly what went on at that first meeting, so The Princess is going to leave it up to you to put your mind in motion and get the picture.
Shortly, things settled down. Tyler caught his breath, invited my Gram to go on a short walk with him and told her his life story, in a NutShell.
By the time Tyler was a year old, his doctors knew all about his heart problems and they told Miss Kris and Mr. Jim (who is Tyler's Dad) that Tyler might not be going to too many of his own birthday parties. As it turns out, Tyler's original doctors have very red faces (this is called embarrassment) because Tyler lived a long and a very happy life. When he came to Leesburg, his doctor became our wonderful Dr. Bill Tyrrell, Jr. Yes, that is certainly correct. The very same doctor caring for The Princess right now!
When Tyler finally received his Letter of Leaving and learned that it was time for him to re-locate, he also learned that he was not to pass away from something related to his big, old, oddly shaped heart. Instead he had a tumor in his tummy. It would not have been fair for Dr. Tyrrell to tell all of us that Tyler could have some surgery and be fine. That was not a true statement. After thinking long and hard, Miss Kris and Mr. Jim made the difficult decision to let Tyler go on his way.
Now, over a month has gone by and it's time to start remembering Tyler as he would have wanted. Tyler was basically a clown. See that picture above us? Just pop on a party hat and Tyler would have been ready to make you laugh. Tyler had a very unusual sense of humor, and it was kind of sneaky, but he loved to make us smile over the silliest things.
What about your lamb collection, Tyler-Boy? When my Gram first met Tyler he had one, medium sized, stuffed lambie. Soon he had two. Then four. Then? All shapes, sizes and colors. Sometimes they got a bath and got freshened up a little, but basically, Tyler would take them all to his bed, place them all in a circle, make sure everyone was present and accounted for and then go to sleep.
It is no secret that we ALL thought that Tyler had a severe case of ADD. Recently my Gram saw a special on the Oprah show where they took some obsessive people to a special camp and taught them how to "get over it". Tyler could have benefitted from something like this. During the night, while everyone else was sleeping, Tyler felt it was his responsibility to make sure you weren't faking it. His method of reassuring himself that all of his humans were having a restful nights sleep was to stand quietly beside the bed, breathe very softly and quietly, and stare at you intently until you woke up. The best time to do a bed check, as far as Tyler was concerned, was usually around three o'clock in the morning.
Sometimes he brought a lambie along with him and held it gently in his mouth as he waited for you to wake up.
Tyler was not much of a guard dog. He had severe issues if it involved a loud noise; truck backfire, gun shot, airplane in the sky (no matter how far up), and of course any activity related to inclement weather. This would be rain, thunder, snowflakes, thunder, lightening, wind, thunder, thunder and thunder. You get the picture, I'm sure. As it turns out Miss Kris has a very nice, very large clothing closet. Tyler spent a great deal of time counting the shoes and making sure they were paired up properly.
And then there is The Mailbox. It really would not make any sense for any two legged person out for a stroll with Tyler to try to get him to pass The Mailbox without first checking to see if The Mailbox contained Mail. Tyler felt it was his sole responsibility to bring in the mail. In Tyler's mind it was important to check The Mailbox every single time one went outside for any reason. He always felt that there was a chance that someone had slipped mail into the box when he wasn't looking and so this necessitated looking several times each day. Fortunately, we found out that we could say "no mail today, Tyler" and he would accept that as the gospel truth. Otherwise, you had better have your key, put the key in the tiny little lock space, open the door and peak inside. If there was mail in The Mailbox, Tyler expected to carry some of it into the house.
Once inside, a small tug of war usually occured in order for the human to retreive The Mail. Tyler always considered a small cookie a fair trade.
Tyler's Chair. Tyler's chair is a nice, old fashioned, wing-back chair and is a lovely shade of blue. Tyler's chair is in a little nook off of the kitchen. Perfectly placed so that one can watch the small television which is closeby, or supervise the preparation of meals. Unlike every other dog, Tyler sat perfectly upright in his chair. Not curled up on the seat. No. Straight up and alert. My Gram said that with his beautiful, dark, expressive eyes, and his rather large black nose, he resembled a gorilla. I'd say my Gram was loopy on that one, but since other people did agree with her, I suppose it could be true. Sometimes as he got older he took a little nap, sitting straight up in his chair, lambies on the floor in a circle and Animal Planet playing softly in the background. Next to Animal Planet his favorite was The Shopping Channel.
Lost Kitty. Tyler shared his life in Leesburg with three kitties. All three had been rescued when Miss Kris and Mr. Jim lived in a different home, in a different State, and with a nice big barn. When it was time to move here, Miss Kris did not want to leave the kitties behind, so she went to a lot of trouble and gave herself a lot of anxiety, but she rounded them all up and brought them along. Two were brother and sister and they looked a lot like each other. Orange with some stripes. They were named Barn Cat #1 and Barn Cat #2. Later we called #2, Girly-Girl and sometimes we called #1 Boy-O. Pretty much BC#1 and BC#2 stayed on the third floor of Tyler's home and didn't bother with him too much. Not so, Lost Kitty. Lost Kitty is much larger than the others and has a lot of strong opinions. One of those opinions is that Tyler should not have been allowed to sleep peacefully in his bed, with his little herd of lambs beside him. Lost Kitty decided to wage war. War involves bombs. In this case, these took a liquid form, did not smell nicely at all, and often were aimed directly at Tyler's head. It was as if Lost Kitty's mission in life was to torment Tyler and he could be seen sneaking around the corner, or laying in the sun plotting his next attack. Miss Kris says that now she finds Lost Kitty sitting in Tyler's chair and looking - no pun intended - lost. Without Tyler he has nothing much to do. Fortunately he has Barn Cat #1 and they have bonded in their first month without The Dog.
Tyler & His Women. In the beginning my Gram was the one who always took care of Tyler. When it was time for Miss Kris & Mr. Jim to travel, my Gram would come to sleep at Tyler's home. After the passage of a few years, my Gram couldn't always stay with Tyler, so my Mom would go to sleep with him. Then Miss Teresa entered his life. Miss Teresa is a wonderful and very beautiful person who has worked for us for a long time. Once Miss Teresa entered The World According to Tyler, he pretty much gave up on My Gram. He still loved my Mom, but Tyler did nothing to hide the fact that he liked tall blondes. Once Miss Beth came to sleep with him. When that occured he decided he liked Southern Blondes with cute accents. But always, he came back to Miss Teresa. It was very clear that Tyler loved her in a way that was very special. And she loved him right back. My Gram had to resort to buying him new lambies every now and then so she could stay in the picture.
The River. The last story I wanted to share with you was about Tyler and The River. The Potomac River. Tyler lived in a very nice community and from his home, one could take a wonderful walk down to The River. It was rather a long walk, at least for my Gram who is getting "up there", but Tyler loved to walk along the hiking trail, then walk around a corner of the golf course, and down to the little boat landing. Thankfully for my Gram, there were benches at this point and she and Tyler could sit down and watch The River as it lazily wandered around the corner and out of sight. Tyler would sit and stare at the water for a long, long time.
Even though we all said that Tyler never really knew he had a bad heart, or that he was sick, we also said that Tyler had nothing to compare his life to. As far as he was concerned, all dogs had hearts that made whispering, thumping, whumping and whoosing noises. As far as he was concerned, all dogs had hearts that sometimes took a leap and a jump and skipped a beat or two. What was that to be worried about? As far as Tyler was concerned, life was Beautiful and Good and Safe, because he had a Mom and a Dad who would always protect him from anything really scary (like Lost Kitty).
My Gram says that Tyler has found a wonderful little boat with a cute little blue and white stripe sail and has floated down The River where we can no longer see him. Gram says that just around that corner is the beginning of The Rainbow Bridge and that once Tyler passed under The Bridge he was immediately greeted by a flock of lost lambs in dire need of someone to round them up and take care of them. In addition to taking care of the lambs, Tyler's other job is to bring in the mail every day and make sure it is stacked neatly on the table. One by one, all of us who knew and loved Tyler during his long and happy life, will cross The Bridge to meet him. And won't that be a Happy Day?
Love,
The Princess
We want to personally thank Sandra (Sandy) Kane for sharing her photograph of Tyler. If you would like to know more about Sandy and her beautiful photography and artwork, please ask your Mouse Man to send some mail to slkwp@aol.com.
On April 19, 2008, Tyler crossed The Rainbow Bridge.
When one of our friends passes away it is undeniably an unhappy event. Nothing we can ever say or do will make things any different and all of the friends left behind have a hard time smiling for a long time. We try to remember our friends "the way they were". This is very difficult to do. But, please. Take a few moments and look into the eyes of our friend, Tyler, and The Princess will tell you some stories.
My Gram met Tyler's Mom, who is named Kris, when Kris was shopping in the book store in Leesburg and my Gram was managing that very same store. This was before my Gram did the last Career Change she was going to attempt in her life and became a Walker of Dogs. My Gram and Miss Kris were what is called Fast Friends and Forever. That means they knew right away that they liked each other and that they had a lot of things in common. One of those things was Tyler.
Tyler was born with problems in his heart. Just like The Princess has now. Tyler came to live in Virginia in early 2003 and in July of that year, he and my Gram met each other. It was true love immediately. No kidding. Tyler thought my Gram was amazing and wanted to marry her right then and there. Well, not actually to marry her, but it is embarrassing for The Princess to explain exactly what went on at that first meeting, so The Princess is going to leave it up to you to put your mind in motion and get the picture.
Shortly, things settled down. Tyler caught his breath, invited my Gram to go on a short walk with him and told her his life story, in a NutShell.
By the time Tyler was a year old, his doctors knew all about his heart problems and they told Miss Kris and Mr. Jim (who is Tyler's Dad) that Tyler might not be going to too many of his own birthday parties. As it turns out, Tyler's original doctors have very red faces (this is called embarrassment) because Tyler lived a long and a very happy life. When he came to Leesburg, his doctor became our wonderful Dr. Bill Tyrrell, Jr. Yes, that is certainly correct. The very same doctor caring for The Princess right now!
When Tyler finally received his Letter of Leaving and learned that it was time for him to re-locate, he also learned that he was not to pass away from something related to his big, old, oddly shaped heart. Instead he had a tumor in his tummy. It would not have been fair for Dr. Tyrrell to tell all of us that Tyler could have some surgery and be fine. That was not a true statement. After thinking long and hard, Miss Kris and Mr. Jim made the difficult decision to let Tyler go on his way.
Now, over a month has gone by and it's time to start remembering Tyler as he would have wanted. Tyler was basically a clown. See that picture above us? Just pop on a party hat and Tyler would have been ready to make you laugh. Tyler had a very unusual sense of humor, and it was kind of sneaky, but he loved to make us smile over the silliest things.
What about your lamb collection, Tyler-Boy? When my Gram first met Tyler he had one, medium sized, stuffed lambie. Soon he had two. Then four. Then? All shapes, sizes and colors. Sometimes they got a bath and got freshened up a little, but basically, Tyler would take them all to his bed, place them all in a circle, make sure everyone was present and accounted for and then go to sleep.
It is no secret that we ALL thought that Tyler had a severe case of ADD. Recently my Gram saw a special on the Oprah show where they took some obsessive people to a special camp and taught them how to "get over it". Tyler could have benefitted from something like this. During the night, while everyone else was sleeping, Tyler felt it was his responsibility to make sure you weren't faking it. His method of reassuring himself that all of his humans were having a restful nights sleep was to stand quietly beside the bed, breathe very softly and quietly, and stare at you intently until you woke up. The best time to do a bed check, as far as Tyler was concerned, was usually around three o'clock in the morning.
Sometimes he brought a lambie along with him and held it gently in his mouth as he waited for you to wake up.
Tyler was not much of a guard dog. He had severe issues if it involved a loud noise; truck backfire, gun shot, airplane in the sky (no matter how far up), and of course any activity related to inclement weather. This would be rain, thunder, snowflakes, thunder, lightening, wind, thunder, thunder and thunder. You get the picture, I'm sure. As it turns out Miss Kris has a very nice, very large clothing closet. Tyler spent a great deal of time counting the shoes and making sure they were paired up properly.
And then there is The Mailbox. It really would not make any sense for any two legged person out for a stroll with Tyler to try to get him to pass The Mailbox without first checking to see if The Mailbox contained Mail. Tyler felt it was his sole responsibility to bring in the mail. In Tyler's mind it was important to check The Mailbox every single time one went outside for any reason. He always felt that there was a chance that someone had slipped mail into the box when he wasn't looking and so this necessitated looking several times each day. Fortunately, we found out that we could say "no mail today, Tyler" and he would accept that as the gospel truth. Otherwise, you had better have your key, put the key in the tiny little lock space, open the door and peak inside. If there was mail in The Mailbox, Tyler expected to carry some of it into the house.
Once inside, a small tug of war usually occured in order for the human to retreive The Mail. Tyler always considered a small cookie a fair trade.
Tyler's Chair. Tyler's chair is a nice, old fashioned, wing-back chair and is a lovely shade of blue. Tyler's chair is in a little nook off of the kitchen. Perfectly placed so that one can watch the small television which is closeby, or supervise the preparation of meals. Unlike every other dog, Tyler sat perfectly upright in his chair. Not curled up on the seat. No. Straight up and alert. My Gram said that with his beautiful, dark, expressive eyes, and his rather large black nose, he resembled a gorilla. I'd say my Gram was loopy on that one, but since other people did agree with her, I suppose it could be true. Sometimes as he got older he took a little nap, sitting straight up in his chair, lambies on the floor in a circle and Animal Planet playing softly in the background. Next to Animal Planet his favorite was The Shopping Channel.
Lost Kitty. Tyler shared his life in Leesburg with three kitties. All three had been rescued when Miss Kris and Mr. Jim lived in a different home, in a different State, and with a nice big barn. When it was time to move here, Miss Kris did not want to leave the kitties behind, so she went to a lot of trouble and gave herself a lot of anxiety, but she rounded them all up and brought them along. Two were brother and sister and they looked a lot like each other. Orange with some stripes. They were named Barn Cat #1 and Barn Cat #2. Later we called #2, Girly-Girl and sometimes we called #1 Boy-O. Pretty much BC#1 and BC#2 stayed on the third floor of Tyler's home and didn't bother with him too much. Not so, Lost Kitty. Lost Kitty is much larger than the others and has a lot of strong opinions. One of those opinions is that Tyler should not have been allowed to sleep peacefully in his bed, with his little herd of lambs beside him. Lost Kitty decided to wage war. War involves bombs. In this case, these took a liquid form, did not smell nicely at all, and often were aimed directly at Tyler's head. It was as if Lost Kitty's mission in life was to torment Tyler and he could be seen sneaking around the corner, or laying in the sun plotting his next attack. Miss Kris says that now she finds Lost Kitty sitting in Tyler's chair and looking - no pun intended - lost. Without Tyler he has nothing much to do. Fortunately he has Barn Cat #1 and they have bonded in their first month without The Dog.
Tyler & His Women. In the beginning my Gram was the one who always took care of Tyler. When it was time for Miss Kris & Mr. Jim to travel, my Gram would come to sleep at Tyler's home. After the passage of a few years, my Gram couldn't always stay with Tyler, so my Mom would go to sleep with him. Then Miss Teresa entered his life. Miss Teresa is a wonderful and very beautiful person who has worked for us for a long time. Once Miss Teresa entered The World According to Tyler, he pretty much gave up on My Gram. He still loved my Mom, but Tyler did nothing to hide the fact that he liked tall blondes. Once Miss Beth came to sleep with him. When that occured he decided he liked Southern Blondes with cute accents. But always, he came back to Miss Teresa. It was very clear that Tyler loved her in a way that was very special. And she loved him right back. My Gram had to resort to buying him new lambies every now and then so she could stay in the picture.
The River. The last story I wanted to share with you was about Tyler and The River. The Potomac River. Tyler lived in a very nice community and from his home, one could take a wonderful walk down to The River. It was rather a long walk, at least for my Gram who is getting "up there", but Tyler loved to walk along the hiking trail, then walk around a corner of the golf course, and down to the little boat landing. Thankfully for my Gram, there were benches at this point and she and Tyler could sit down and watch The River as it lazily wandered around the corner and out of sight. Tyler would sit and stare at the water for a long, long time.
Even though we all said that Tyler never really knew he had a bad heart, or that he was sick, we also said that Tyler had nothing to compare his life to. As far as he was concerned, all dogs had hearts that made whispering, thumping, whumping and whoosing noises. As far as he was concerned, all dogs had hearts that sometimes took a leap and a jump and skipped a beat or two. What was that to be worried about? As far as Tyler was concerned, life was Beautiful and Good and Safe, because he had a Mom and a Dad who would always protect him from anything really scary (like Lost Kitty).
My Gram says that Tyler has found a wonderful little boat with a cute little blue and white stripe sail and has floated down The River where we can no longer see him. Gram says that just around that corner is the beginning of The Rainbow Bridge and that once Tyler passed under The Bridge he was immediately greeted by a flock of lost lambs in dire need of someone to round them up and take care of them. In addition to taking care of the lambs, Tyler's other job is to bring in the mail every day and make sure it is stacked neatly on the table. One by one, all of us who knew and loved Tyler during his long and happy life, will cross The Bridge to meet him. And won't that be a Happy Day?
Love,
The Princess
We want to personally thank Sandra (Sandy) Kane for sharing her photograph of Tyler. If you would like to know more about Sandy and her beautiful photography and artwork, please ask your Mouse Man to send some mail to slkwp@aol.com.
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