Beyond a Cute Dog Painting : Betty

"Her notorious habit of bathroom stalking! She’d scratch at the door, and if it wasn’t completely latched she’d manage to push her way in."

Thank you to Betty’s dads, lilmunchkingirls, for the honor of painting Betty. I loved Betty from afar for many years. I miss her too.

Betty Hussein Suarez was adopted from the shelter in Long Beach in 2008, so we really don’t know how old she was. We were there following up on another stray dog that we had found running around the streets near our neighborhood the day we moved into our new house. But of course, one look at that little adorable face and it was game over.
Her crooked little mouth explains why we named her after Ugly Betty, and her middle name comes from President Obama, who had just been elected, so we honored that occasion by giving her his middle name of Hussein.
But she had many nicknames that developed over the years: Spaghetti, Baguette, Lil One, Lil Munch, Monkey.
Betty was a quirky girl, never truly bonded with her siblings, and preferred to be alone. In fact, it was really only in the past 5 years or so that Betty sought out the attention of her dads, wanting to cuddle during evening TV time, and coming over to the side of the bed to tell us she wanted to get picked up for bedtime. And of course, her notorious habit of bathroom stalking! She’d scratch at the door, and if it wasn’t completely latched she’d manage to push her way in. Bathroom trips are so lonely now.
She was the most gentle, patient and quiet dog in the world. Everyone fell in love with her demeanor and her signature snaggletooth, especially children and she was always so tolerant of their manhandling.
She survived cancer, and suffered through many other ailments along the way, like kidney failure and getting stuck behind the washing machine (we’re still traumatized from that ordeal!). She fought so hard to get back into good health with each incidence, and always managed to surprise us with her resilience and strength. And in later years, she lost her hearing.
In the end, we know she was greeted by her siblings Chichi and Cooper, who accompanied her across the rainbow bridge.
It’s been a week since Betty transcended. As shocking and traumatic as it was, I want to thank her for sparing us the agony of seeing her suffer, or from having to make that horrible decision that we all dread. She left on her own terms, asleep in the sunshine, in one of her favorite beds. We hope she was having a nice dream.

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