Zoey's Beautiful Life

Editor's Note: As many of you know, my year has been full of loss, drastic change, and constant reorganization and re-evaluation of how things have always been for me and my family in Evanston. This month, we were dealt yet another blow, when we lost our other dog to a quick and devastating disease course. Writing these remembrances for my pets is a catharsis of sorts, so I hope you'll bear with me as I share another one with you...

Zoey “Shoo-Shoo” Reddy-Herbst meandered over the Rainbow Bridge Wednesday, November 2, after a brief but challenging battle with canine kidney disease. Her sudden diagnosis in August, after 11 beautiful years of perfect health, took us by surprise. We vowed to do everything we could to get her to prolong the inevitable, but CKD is a relentless, unforgiving disease, and after a couple of bouncebacks, it took its toll, and we realized her broken little body was holding her down.

Zoey embodied the very meaning of her name (“life” in Greek) from the day she came home to wreak havoc on her fur brother Rohan’s organized life. Never one to follow the rules, Zoey was a rebel girl, able to miraculously quadruple her weight on a walk if that was NOT the direction she wanted to go! Bug munching was her jam (good ol’ Midwestern cicadas were prime until she got a taste of the jumbo-size North Carolina ones!), and she would often hoover up a dozen or so a day during the rise of a brood. Even birds were no match for her, as she could snatch a cicada right out of the air with a bird on its tail!

She was our Silent Bob—it took a lot to get her to say something out loud. And it lent well to being our resident Sneaky Pete—the one who could lift a chicken nugget from a kid like a pick-pocket on the London Underground, gobble up toddler table detritus faster than a Fuller brush, and completely rearrange the rabbit pen just to get a lettuce leaf or two. She may have looked like Mommy, with that crazy curly black hair, but she was a Daddy’s girl through and through. Nothing meant more to her than belly rubs on the couch with her Best Guy. Except maybe a daily Wrestlemania match with Rohan, resulting in each dog sporting a mouthful of the other’s fur.

Upside-down snoozing, all four feet in the air; crooked sitting on the porch, contemplating her next bug snack; and finding that perfect beam of sunshine to nap in were how we could always find her. Enjoying life and living up to her name.

Zoey is survived by her bun sister and brother, Oso & Gustavo; furless smol hoo-mans, Zubin & Zahra; and her Big Hoo-mans, Mommy & Pop, who will really miss her very animated tail-wagging, bark-out-loud dreams at night. She is preceded in death by her fur brother Rohan; fellow lettuce sparring partner Poe; and her Thah-Thah, her Mommy's Pop, who probably still won’t like her licking him, even at the Rainbow Bridge.

I have suffered the loss of three irreplaceable family members in the past 10 months, so it will take me a little more time to bring you the next incarnation of Spoonfoolery. We hope that when we're ready, you'll still want to follow along with Spoonfoolery, how ever we reinvent! Until then, take good care of your fur babies, and keep Rohan, Zoey, and my beloved father in your hearts.

Be free, our dear sweet Missy Sue, free of the body that wouldn’t work for you, and go kick up to your heart’s content. Better watch out, other-worldly bugs. You have no idea who’s coming for you! ~Zoey Reddy-Herbst July 2, 2011 to November 2, 2022