It’s hard to tell stories about someone who means so much to you, who has left a massive mark on your life, and whose presence will be missed more than I can possibly describe. I decided the best way was to just start at the beginning, and write stories as I thought of them. This is the first in a series of posts about Mieke, starting at the beginning and roughly chronicling the past 13 years.

In March of 2011, I was working at a chain pet store in Phoenix, AZ - a decent enough job to get me through. One day, the crusty old lady who worked the front asked me as I joined her at the next register - “Hey, do you want a German Shepard puppy? I know a guy who’s trying to get rid of one.”

Yeah, sure, why not? I love dogs. Always have. She told me the guy would meet me outside after my shift. I didn’t really think it through, honestly. I was riding my bike to work then (didn’t even have a car). I lived with two other people (a good friend and his girlfriend), who probably should have been consulted. I was barely making enough money to feed myself and pay my share of rent/utilities.

My shift ended that afternoon, and I went outside to wait for the guy. As promised, he showed up in a beat up maroon van. Didn’t even park, just stopped in front of the store. Jumped out, walked around to the side and asked if I was the guy who wanted the dog. He didn’t really wait for a reply, slid the van door open, and pulled out a small black puppy with huge feet. He put her in my arms. She was so small, and looked at me with her big eyes. The guy told me she was born “just about 8 weeks ago” and that he sold the rest of the puppies - except her. “She’s the runt. Want her?”

With all the recklessness of someone not far enough into their 20s to make responsible decisions - of course I wanted her. The man didn’t wait for any more discussion - jumped in his van and drove off, the clandestine dog deal completed.

I headed back into the pet store, and plopped this little puppy in the cart - of course all my coworkers wanted to pet her, say hi, offer their opinions on what necessities I had to grab. I picked her up a big kong crab chew toy, a red collar, and the best dog food I could afford… and realized I had no way of getting all this and my new friend home on my bicycle. Had to text my roomate - “Hey man… how do you feel about having a german shepherd puppy?” Pretending of course, that it wasn’t already a done deal and fishing for a ride. Well he responded with something along the lines of “we should totally have a german shepherd puppy!” He wasn’t able to give me a ride home, so I called my dad.

He didn’t give me too much of a hard time about getting a dog - just the usual dad talk about “responsibilities” and “commitment.” He was right, of course. He also completely understood when he pulled up in his jeep and saw her. I am so fortunate that he took these photos of us, when we were young and small.

The first night she was home she was quiet, and sleepy. I spent that entire evening and night holding her and petting her. My roommate was thrilled - his girlfriend much less so. He asked me what her name was and I still hadn’t thought of one - he sat down with me and we took turns holding her trying out different names. I’m pretty sure he was the first to suggest Mieke - jokingly, “A common German girls name!” (Eurotrip)

We worked out a whole schedule for taking care of her - it wasn’t difficult, he worked nights and I worked days (except for the odd early morning stocking shift).

The next day she was a totally different dog - no longer sleepy, quiet, and calm. She woke up with energy, and decided she wanted to bite and chew and run. She played hard, and to this day I still have faint scars from her sharp little puppy teeth. We went on walks, and wrassled in the house as much as possible. I took her over to my dad’s when I could and she played with his dogs… as much as they would tolerate. She was 90% teeth.

I got her enrolled in training classes at the pet store - a perk of working there was one free 7 week course. She loved learning, and was very motivated by attention and snacks.

Not long after, our lease was up for renewal, and they told us that we couldn’t have a German Shepherd. They were on the short list of not approved breeds of dogs by the complex. We decided we needed a place with a yard for her to run anyway, and found a house in South Phoenix for rent that had a yard, more space and even a pool.

Have you ever tried to teach a dog to swim? It’s one of those things that you think animals would just “know”, right? Well, Mieke never could figure out how to swim. We tried everything we could think of - she absolutely hated being in the water, and hated us being in the water. We had friends with dogs who would come over and go swimming - Mieke would bark furiously and run around the pool trying to get them out.

Other dogs never seemed to understand Mieke - they usually treated her like she was a totally different animal, not speaking their language. The cliche saying is that dogs take after their people - I never really understand people. Mieke and I understood each other though. I respected her dogness and spirit. She probably could have been trained to be better behaved, but I loved her personality - as destructive as it was sometimes.

She grew in size rapidly - until she was 60 pounds of energetic, loud, bitey terror. Never liked to cuddle - I would usually have to wrassle her until she sorta-kinda accepted the affection. Usually she would relax for a few moments, then flail, bite and scamper away.

A couple of years passed, a few girlfriends, a few apartments, and some hard times. Mieke was very much there for me - she never let me feel down, would bite and play aggressively until I felt better. No matter how hard of a time I was having, I wanted to be a better person for her. We’d go on drives. She loved car rides, and would rest her head on my shoulder begging for cheez-its as I drove. I enrolled at the community college, and then decided to move to Tucson to pursue a degree at the university.

Tucson is very much where my life began. Shortly after moving there, at an office job, I met a girl who I thought was far too cool to be interested in me. I wanted to see what Mieke thought of her, and how she reacted to Mieke. Mieke didn’t really like any of my girlfriends, and it turns out she was an excellent judge of character. I offered this girl a ride home, said that I could just pick her up at the end of her shift. I went home, picked up Mieke, gave her the rundown on what we were going to do (dog didn’t care, she was just stoked to go on a car ride), and left to take this new girl home.

I pulled up, and this girl jumped in and was immediately ambushed by Mieke with all sorts of love, affection and excitement. Even more surprising, she was all about Mieke. I started driving her home regularly, and the next time she saw Mieke was the first time she came over to my apartment for dinner. She came in the door, and immediately got down and started playing with Mieke, and Mieke played with her.

Gerri and I started dating, and the first trip we took was with Mieke up Mt. Lemmon to go camping. One of our favorite stories about Mieke was from this trip. Dog and I were sleeping, and Gerri unzipped the tent to sneak out and use the facilities. Not sure how, but Mieke bolted out into the darkness. Full dog speed. Gerri and I both went out after her, and heard a guy yell in terror as Mieke tore through his campsite. She came back when Gerri called, and we had a good laugh about how scary she must have seemed coming out of the darkness up there at that guy.

That was August of 2014 - Gerri moved in to the small apartment with Mieke and I shortly after. Another favorite story we share often is how we would count change to buy fresh tortillas from the tortilleria across the street. Well, one day we left the stack of tortillas on the counter to go do something really quick - change laundry, maybe. Well, we came back in and found that Mieke had taken a single bite out of the stack of tortillas. Big ol’ dog bite right through the side of a dozen of them. She left the rest on the floor, and didn’t even seem sorry about it. She knew better than to put her paws on the counter but would somehow stretch her neck so long that she could get just about anything left out. Dog enjoyed many pastries and breads that she swiped.

One time at that apartment we were coming back from a walk with Mieke, early in the morning. Mieke did not like other dogs - she would make a lot of noise and spaz out on the leash whenever she saw one. We usually tried to avoid animals, as best we could living in an apartment near other people. Well, that morning we came around the corner and face to face with a javelina. Gerri and I both braced to try and separate dog from this wild desert critter. Mieke stared at the javelina, and it stared right back at her - but they somehow both decided that it was better to just let the other be.

We had a small patio at the apartment in Tucson - and we tried to grow as much as possible back there. Gerri was out there watering plants, and I heard her yell at Mieke and then all of a sudden Mieke was tearing through the apartment. Mieke ran into the living room and started flopping around, being all weird. Rubbing her face on the carpet and then zooming around like she was possessed. When I finally got a hold of her to stop her from knocking over furniture and things - her lips were all swollen. She chomped a bee, apparently. She seemed totally happy about it, all things considered.

2016 was a watershed year for all three of us - and I don’t think any of us were ready for life with a baby. Mieke took her big sister role seriously, and was very calm and gentle with Kara. Kara was a very angry baby - loud and hardly seemed to sleep. When she did sleep, it was only swaddled and laying on the couch or in her rocking swing. Mieke would gently sneak up next to her and lay there, watching over her little sister… until Kara would kick her feets. Then she’d let out a big, exasperated, dog sigh and slunk off to the bedroom to crawl into bed with whoever was in there at the time.

I would pick Mieke up and rock her sometimes, after rocking Kara - just so she wouldn’t feel left out. She reluctantly accepted the attention, but would usually flail and bite after a bit.

To be continued, soon.