Ch Tesouro’s Black Magic, RN

Jill (Ch Tesouro's Black Magic, RN) 11/2/2002 - 6/2/2015
AKA: JillyPooh, JillyBean, the Bean, BeabieBaby, the Mama, the Queen, JillytheBull, MeanJillyBean, the Mama's Mama, the black one
I haven't been up to writing this until now and I'm crying as I type. I can't talk about it yet without bursting in to tears.
My precious JillyBean arrived safely at the Georgie project this morning. We don't yet know exactly what kind of cancer she had, but it appeared to be a fast growing invasinve soft tissue carcinoma. We had been treating her torn/ruptured attachment of her rectus abdominus when she suddenly had new growths sprouting daily. Her recent bloodwork was very good so I thought maybe the large lump on her outer hip/thigh was regrowth of atrophied muscle but further signs indicated otherwise. The vet who has been doing acupuncture/acupuncture confirmed that it was a cancerous mass last Friday.
We tried to keep her pain free and happy and she was for the most part but there were signs of some breakthrough pain and we had to add an appetite stimulant to keep her eating. She lost vision in one eye and had more trouble moving around and Tuesday afternoon it was pretty obvious that she was losing her qualtiy of life pretty rapidly and significantly so we gave her her favorite things for dinner, took her out for a little free range plank walking and then hung out on the pool table eating stinky steak and squirty cheese while she went to sleep. Thank goodness for the vet making house calls! I curled up with her on the pool table and cuddled her while she got her last shot and slipped away. Dog Cindi, Chris, Jennifer (the vet) and I got her ready to travel to Georgie.
She had 10 wonderful years with us - we got her on Jack's 3rd birthday (she was 2 1/2) because every little boy needs a dog. She had VERY different ideas about whose dog she was going to be, and although we started off with bonding her to Bruce, he left for a pre-scheduled trip to Scoltand and Ireland a couple of weeks after she came here and she was firmly entrenched as the Mama's dog by the time he returned.
She also changed her name almost immediately. She didn't acknowledge her old name much at all and the morning after we brought her home, I was singing the nursery rhyme about Jack and Jill going up the hill as we were walking up the hill to the pond. I often sang it to Jack as we went up there but Jill became VERY animated during that and every time I said Jill afterward. Apparently Jill was supposed to be her name so that's what it became (with many variations)
She came in the house and immediately changed the rules about dogs on the furniture (prior to that I spent a LOT of time sitting in the floor with Jack) and while she wasn't getting into anything on the pool table, she levitated herself there to lie down n comfort - a trait she passed on the her offsrping.
She was a lovely bitch and had an incredible floating trot - she could trot fast or slow or medium but it was really hard to get her to do anything BUT trot. She carried herself like royalty and we have many group pictures of the dogs with everyone else lying down and Jilly sitting (nobody's head can be higher that the Queen's).
After we showed her to her conformation championship, we eventually bred her. It was no mean feat getting her to wait until WE decided she should have puppies (she had had an unplanned litter before we got her and could open doorknobs - not levers knobs - on rooms that opened in toward her after she had opened the crate she was in) but she was a WONDERFUL mother. She took such good care of her puppies that we were afraid she would try to take over SammieDoodlebug's puppies when it was her turn. Instead, the BeanieBaby just provided security and backup care for her daughters' litters including contributing food (throwing up and then teachng them how to eat chicken and then teaching them how NOT to take chicken from a grown dog) and teaching manners.
She extended her lessons in deportment to dogs outside the family and her mothering skills to human babies and children she encountered. She would let kids walk her endlessly around the room or a yard on a leash, she NEVER pulled on a leash. She could be trembling and screaming with excitement and anticipation of running back on the hill but you could hold her leash with a pinky and she didn't pull. She has at leat one grandchild who inherited that trait without ever being trained to it so I think perhaps it was just intrinsically Jill.
Because she was so laid back compared to Jack, most people thought she was well trained. She just had the humans well trained. Granted, the only times she ever counter surfed were when she had puppies (she took a roll for one litter and a plate of bacon wrapped steaks for the other- she had to go through the pass through window into the kitchen for those - and she took both prizes to her puppies an ddoled out the booty) but she had no interest in obedience. Why whould she stay or wait when she could be with the Mama? Gates and walls meant nothing to her if I was on the other side (she went over a 52 inch block wall to be with me once.) If she didn't want to do something she either melted into a puddle of limp dog or put on the brakes and became JillyTheBull wiht her head lowered and hr feet planted. She either got her way or I picked her up and carried her (which she adored.) She could turn her big ole head jus the right way and you'd pull her previously snig collar off while she stood rooted to her spot so that was the only way to win the battle.
She barked at the doorbell and when I bought a wireles version so I could practice a different behavior when teh doorbell rang, she NVEVER once barked at the wireless one so that plan was wasted.
She's left a huge hole in my life even as I am speding time with her daughter and grandchildren. I'm trying to comfort myself with the knowledge of the other families that are experiencing the joy of her offspring and their offspring but I still miss my JillyPooh. She was a great bitch.



Cristi Fogus Wetherholt (Blindchick)
Allyn Portuguese Water Dogs - Structure,Temperament, Drive...ALL IN!
Sent from my iPad