Sophie Louise Rose
December 6, 1998 - March 23, 2013

Sophie Louise Rose , "The Queen of All She Sees" crossed over the Rainbow Bridge with the loving help of her first vet, Dr. Elizabeth Murphy. Sophie was 14 years, 3 months, and 17 days young. Sophie gave us, her "pyrents" John and Jane Rose, the privilege of being owned by a great pyr for over 12 years after she came into their lives in October 2000.

A co-worker of John's approached him about taking in a Great Pyrenees; we had no idea what a Great Pyrenees even was. His co-worker's brother-in-law had gotten her from one of his co-workers. The man could no longer keep her since his elderly mother-in-law had moved in with him and his wife. John's co-worker was keeping Sophie until her brother-in-law could ready a dog house and chain for her on some property he owned. The woman told John she was a wonderful girl and deserved a better life than what her brother-in-law had in store for her. She thought since John liked cats, we would like a Great Pyrenees since they have many characteristics of cats. They are independent, stubborn, and do things on their own time. Sophie would also curl her front legs up under her like a cat, and look like she had no front legs at all! We called that her "baby seal" or "meatloaf" yoga pose. She licked her paws like a cat to clean them - extending her legs out in front of her and cleaning her feet.
When John called our veterinarian for our cats, Dr. Murphy, asking what she knew about Great Pyrenees, she was quite taken aback we were considering a giant breed dog since we had only had cats up to that point in our lives. After John convinced me that we needed to go meet Sophie, (I knew you don't ever go just meet a dog without bringing it home) I gave in and we went to meet her. Sophie was busy playing with his co-worker's dog and could have cared less about us being there. As soon as she told John if he did not take her, her brother-in-law was coming to get her, John opened up the back of his SUV and we started the beginning of wonderful journey - little did we know how she would change our lives.

We had no knowledge of the breed, not even a dog collar or a leash. We took Sophie to PetSmart using one of John's belts around her neck as a leash to get her outfitted with the help of some dear friends, who drove from over an hour away, to meet us and tell us what we needed to get for her.
When Sophie first came to our house and was wandering around checking it out, Sylvan, our silver tipped Persian cat, and king of the house, was laying on our bed. When Sophie passed by, he jumped on her back and rode her down the hall! Poor Sophie was terrified and would never look at Sylvan again. If he came near her, she turned her face away from him for the rest of his life.

A few days after we got Sophie, our friend Mike came by to meet her. I had to get something in the house and left Mike in the backyard with her. While I was in the house, Sophie was in the mood to romp and came up and wrapped her front paws around him and started hunching him from behind! Scared him to death! She did not hurt him, but you can imagine his surprise. Fortunately, that was a one time thing, so no one else had to worry about being accosted by her. She liked to raise her hind leg to pee too! Another dominant behavior not seen very often in female dogs!

Realizing we needed to get our canine child in line we enrolled her in obedience training. It was then we found out that Sophie was a dominant female. Dominant female pyrenees are smart, independent, stubborn, difficult, reactive, loyal and wonderful dogs, if you know how to handle them, which we did not. During the sessions, she would lock eyes with another dog across the training room and go into attack mode. We would have to step in front of her to distract her. Not knowing any better, we thought this was how the breed behaved. About the 4th week of a six week class, the instructor told us we would have a great dog in about a year. A year! We thought she would be trained at the end of the course! We continued with weekly refresher courses for about a year after that. Several years later when one of our other dogs was going to training, we brought Sophie along to show her old trainer how much progress she had made. Sophie would drop with a big thud with a " Down" command and would comply with a "Stay" command for extended periods. She had the honor that day of being the dog that stayed in a "down stay" in the center of the room while all the other dogs in training had to walk in a large circle around her since she was the distraction dog! Not a snarl or growl was heard. She truly enjoyed being the center of attention. She also went on to pass her Canine Good Citizen and Therapy Dog tests. She enjoyed visiting nursing homes to allow the residents to pet her and remember their pets from their lives and even visited with me twice when I was in the hospital.

Sophie was quite a flirt and a femme fatale with humans, wrapping them easily around the triple dew claws she had on her hind legs and doubles on her front ones. Most pyrs only have double dew claws on rear legs, and singles on front legs, but not Miss Sophie! She was special! Sophie also loved having her picture taken and was more than happy to pose, allowing us to have many beautiful pictures to remember her with.

Even though she was a "trained" dog, Sophie was convinced all dark dogs, baby buggies, and people in black hoodies were bears, and was never able to overcome her racial prejudice against them. While vacationing in Wisconsin, we were enjoying on outdoor afternoon concert with Sophie and the pyr boys, Sophie's Minions we called them, laying quietly around us. Suddenly, Sophie jumped up and took off like she had been shot out of a cannon. We each thought the other had a hold of her leash handle, which was not the case. A person in a wheel chair had come into view with her black Labrador service dog. Sophie was out for blood; she chased the Labrador around the wheelchair, wrapping her 20' leash around it too. Fortunately the dog was not hurt, or any of the humans, only our pride. We apologized profusely, gave them the name of the local vet to take the dog to it she could be checked, and left the concert with the woman's companion yelling he was going to call the police. Our rental house was only a few blocks away, and once we had gotten back safely inside, we saw the sheriff's car pull up to the house next door and an officer go to the door - probably looking for us! We then saw the woman's companion walking down the street shouting that this was the direction we had come. It was like the march of the townspeople in Frankenstein when they corner him at the castle! Little did we know we would be harboring a fugitive while on vacation. Trying to keep four Great Pyrenees from barking in a house with no air conditioning, the windows open and people talking next door was no easy feat! When we called to pay the vet bill for the dog later, she had checked out fine, no injuries, bites or even a scratch, thank goodness. So much for Miss Sophie's concert attendances.

Even though Sophie did not care for black dogs, she did really like German Shepherds. She must not have gotten the memo about wolves being on the predator list too. When John was doing pet sitting, she went with him every visit to play and romp with a young male german shepherd he was watching. The shepherd never grew to like any other dogs, but the rest of his life he still liked Great Pyrenees and wags his tail in eager anticipation of a romp when he sees one. Sophie had imprinted on him these big white dogs are lots of fun! On her one and only opportunity to scare a bear off, she and her pyr siblings slept through the whole thing. We had rented a house in Highland, NC for a week. The bears rifled the trash cans outside the first floor windows one night and this did not even generate so much as a bark or growl from the four leggeds in the house.

The first time we took Sophie and Sam to the beach, John rigged up our Ford Explorer so that they could be strapped with harnesses to the inside roof of the vehicle with an assembly of 2 x 4's. This was pre-doggie seatbelt days. As you can imagine, this was quite a production. He also bought a wireless collar for her with a remote control "zapper" so she could be off leash on the beach. He had trained her to the point where when she heard the beep, she would turn around to come back. Fortunately for her, he lost interest in this endeavor. Until she lost her hearing, anytime Sophie heard a high pitched beep or when the smoke detector battery get low, she would freak out and run from the room. I don't think the freedom of being off leash offset the fear of being shocked.

One summer when she was about 5 years old, Sophie would no longer go out our back door to the yard. Nothing had changed in the back yard, so I could not figure out what was scaring her. I consulted Mary Marshall, a pet intuitive, to see what was going on with her. Mary immediately asked me what we had painted on the deck. John had painted water sealant on the deck a few weeks before. Sophie did not like the slippery feel of the deck and was convinced the entire yard was a sea of water sealant. This fear was easily dealt with by taking her a few times through the side gate to the back yard, where she then figured out it was grass and not a lake in the back yard and she was fine. Sophie also shared during that conversation with Mary that her left eye was better. I did not realize anything was wrong with her left eye, and thought it was an odd comment. I shared with John after talking to Mary, I mentioned to him about her eye, to which he sheepishly answered "oh." Turns out he had accidentally poked her in the left eye the day before and had not told me. She wanted to make sure that I knew what he had done, since he had not come clean about it, so she was "ratting" out her dad through Mary.

Sophie had no tolerance for horses pulling carriages. According to Mary she thought they belonged in the field and not on city streets. We had to duck into many door ways when walking around quaint, historical areas we were visiting, in order to avoid making spectacles of ourselves when a horse and carriage went by. Still they always seemed to know when one was close by. She had taught her "minions" too, that horses do not belong on streets, so they would all join in a giant "barkfest!" If we drove by a horse out in a pasture, she never made a peep. One of her favorite car rides was to downtown Indianapolis on the circle where the sailors and soldiers monument is. The horse and carriages queue up for riders there, and she would stick her big beautiful head out the back window of the car and bark at those gorgeous big horses with her big deep bark telling them to go back to their pastures. John could not help giving her a few spins around the circle on these rides since she enjoyed herself so much.

Sophie loved going for car rides. After reading several books on pet communication, I could envision in my mind her riding in the back seat of my car with her head out the window and her beautiful coat blowing in the breeze when I wanted to take her with me. She would actually get up and walk in the laundry room where the door to the garage is, and stand there waiting for me to get her leash. I was not gifted with the ability to receive communication from animals, but I was thrilled I was at least able to communicate that request to her to see if she wanted to go on a ride.

During car rides, she liked to have both of the back windows down, so she could stick her head out of either one as needed. If the windows were not down, she would make a noise like someone clearing their throat to let me know she wanted it lowered. This was usually done with her sticking her head next to my ear as I was driving and then making a gagging noise in my ear. Not the most pleasant noise, but I got the message. She did this in her later years too when she wanted help getting up or did not like the way she might be laying and wanted moved. It was her way of communicating to us, what she wanted done. If we rolled one window up when she wasn't using it, we would get the signal again.

Sophie loved to travel with us. One of her first trips was to Chicago where we stayed at the Westin on Michigan Avenue. She found their "heavenly bed" to be quite heavenly, and really startled the maid when she came in to do the turn down service. We had attended a matinee and stopped at the hotel on the way to dinner, and found her stretched out enjoying a big nap on the big bed and the maid scared to death in the bathroom. Fortunately John speaks Spanish and was able to help alleviate her fear of Sophie. She did however find the potty accommodations in Chicago less than suitable since she had to walk 3 blocks to take a pee. On the same trip we made a visit to my grandmother in northern Illinois at a retirement facility. We left her tied under a shade tree outside while we had lunch inside, watching her from the dining room. As we were eating lunch, we noticed Sophie was getting red spots all over her. We did not know if someone was shooting her with a BB gun or a paint gun. When we got to her, we realized we had tied her to a Mulberry tree, and the berries falling were what was on her! Everyone needs a purple polka dotted pyr at least once!

She also traveled to Michigan, Wisconsin, New York, Kentucky, Ohio, Maine, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, the Outer Banks in North Carolina, the Florida panhandle beaches, and several Great Pyrenees Club of America National shows where she participated in the rescue parades. For her 13th birthday, she walked the beach in Port St. Joe, Florida with me. Her last trip was to Nags Head, NC, to the beach, in May of 2012. She was not able to go out on the beach due to the steep steps that access it, but she really liked riding up and down in the elevator at the rental house and woofing at the passerby's from a deck on the third floor. Of course her male minions had to join in on making sure everyone knew they were all on duty.

She loved going to the Nora library, where everyone would make over how beautiful she was, the bank, where she got treats; the post office; Factory Card Outlet The Cobblestone Grill and Serenity, restaurants in Zionsville; Café Patachou; Champs; Petite Chou; the CVS drive through window, where she got more treats; Sam's Club, The Post Office and Target, only once; Petsmart, where she would start crying when we turned in the parking lot because she was so excited to go shopping; Petco where they have wonderful doggie vanilla oreo cookies; and Pet Supplies Plus, where they have all the goodies at easy sniffing levels. She went for hay rides at the annual IGPR Hayride and Weenie Roast in the Fall and on several pontoon boat rides around Eagle Creek Reservoir, until the vendor decided the Pyrenees left too much hair on the boats, the nerve!

She liked walking around the Brick Street Market in Zionsville and walking around other craft fairs too. Holliday Park was her favorite place for walks - lots of people and not too long of paths. It was one of the places we stopped on that sad day we made our last trip to see Dr. Murphy. She loved visiting other people's homes too, especially doing home visits with me for applicants who wanted to adopt a Great Pyrenees. Her job, as she saw it, was to be admired and then to check out the bathrooms to make sure they toilets were water fountain worthy. Nothing like good clean toilet water! She even got to go to work with her me once at The Indianapolis Star. I won a United Way Silent Auction allowing you to bring your dog to work day - not a common occurrence there. The look on my " dog unfriendly" boss's face was priceless when I told him I was bringing Sophie to work with me the next day.
A "pyrfect" lady, she followed me around the advertising department, and even attended meetings with me. John would also sometimes bring her and the boys down to meet me for lunch, where we would picnic in the park across the street.

She participated in the Christmas in the Village Parade in Zionsville the last 5 years, walking the route in when she had just turned 12 and less than a month after she had surgery for gastric torsion/bloat. The emergency vet was amazed a breed her age could survive the surgery, but she did and went on to walk the entire parade route!

Sophie's greatest accomplishment was her effect on us to start Indy Great Pyrenees Rescue. In 2000, rescues did exist, but were not as prevalent as they are today. Due to our love of this breed, which started with Sophie, we and our volunteers have rescued more than 1000 pyrs in Sophie's lifetime.

Here's how the rescue started. Shortly after getting Sophie we decided since she was such a great girl and we loved her so much, we thought she would like a friend. In 2001, we rescued a female great pyr who had been abandoned in a field in a nearby county someone told us about. We set off to find her, and took Sophie along too. We found Mattie Jo, (named for the condition of her fur at the time) but little did we know that Sophie would not tolerate another female pyr, which she made "pyrfectly" clear as she tried to eat her through the crate we had bought with us. Shortly after we saved her ,we found our poor Mattie Jo had metastasized breast cancer that had spread to her lungs and she was only was with us for two months. Breast cancer is very prevalent in dogs not spayed before their first heat cycle and Mattie was probably 8-9 years old at that time. A few months later, our next canine addition was Samson, a 50 lb. 4 month old pup from Biloxi, MS, whose family could not keep him in military housing and he became Sophie's soul mate. She raised him, administered cosmic justice, romped with him daily, slept by him and they truly were a bonded pair. We called her his "mommy girlfriend" since they had such a connected relationship. Samson crossed the bridge in July of 2009 from a brain tumor and Sophie never romped with any of the pyrs again. I'm sure she and her Sammy Bear are together now.

Since Sophie would not tolerate other females in the house, we added two more pyr boys to our fur family, Glacier in 2002, and Theo in 2006. Theo crossed the bridge in May of 2011 and Glacier in March of 2012. Sophie outlived all of her original male harem.

Sophie lived a wonderful life, and was deeply loved. At 14+ years, we are honored to have such a wonderful and spirited girl change our lives. Sophie make us realize what a committed and passionate love we have to those who have no voice of their own and our desire to want to make them so much of our lives. Sophie's influence spurred John to purchase a boarding kennel in 2012, and Rose Pet Memorial Center was created to give pet parents a welcoming place of respect to honor their fur companions who are loved like Sophie was, when their time comes to cross over. Sophie is survived by her fur siblings, Tucker, Juneau, Clark, all Great Pyrenees, and Chloe and Cleo, the cats.

Special thank you to Mary Marshall and Karen Glickert, animal intuitives, who helped us understand Sophie's wishes and desires throughout her life. Their communication with her helped us in knowing how to keep her comfortable and happy and gave us comfort when we had to make the difficult decision to let her go. She especially liked us granting her requests for her recent love of cupcakes. Many Great Pyrenees and Pyrenees Mixes and "PyrWannabes" are in loving forever homes today thanks to Sophie being such an integral part of our lives. Sophie was a beautiful and wonderful girl, and an ambassador for her breed, who we will live forever in our hearts. We are honored to have had the chance to care for and love such a beautiful and intelligent creature. We should all be so lucky.

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