"In each little life we can see great truth and beauty, and in each little life we glimpse the way of all things in the universe."
Fiction writer Dean Koontz had everything he could want -- a happy marriage in Southern California and a successful career with more than twenty #1 New York Times best-selling novels to his credit. And then along came Trixie, a retired service dog, and he found a new window on life.
Dean had always wanted a dog--had even written several books in which dogs were featured. But not until Trixie was he truly open to the change that such a beautiful creature could bring about in him. Trixie had intelligence, a lack of vanity, and an uncanny knack for living in the present. And because she was joyful and direct as all dogs are, she put her heart into everything--from chasing tennis balls, to playing practical jokes, to protecting those she loved.
A retired service dog with Canine Companions for Independence, Trixie became an assistance dog of another kind. She taught Dean to trust his instincts, persuaded him to cut down to a fifty-hour work week, and, perhaps most important, renewed in him a sense of wonder that will remain with him for the rest of his life. She mended him in many ways.
Its truly amazing when one encounters an animal who has the human sense to do certain things. Like how Trixie refused to use home property for her bathroom. Or how when she developed an allergy to wheat and beef and would throw up, she would give fair warning and then head to the stone floor to throw up since it made for easier clean up. Or how when visiting a friend she just knew that a specific musical figurine was a gift from a beloved male that was the subject of the conversation and as such she got it and hid it under the table in order to have it play at the right moment.
Loved reading how she would stop, pause and look at Dean or his wife in a way that they understood her unspoken thoughts. How she had such a keen almost angelic sense about things. Even when she died.
Trixie weighed only sixty-something pounds, Dean occasionally called her Short Stuff, and she lived less than twelve years. In this big world, she was a little thing, but in all the ways that mattered, including the effect she had on those who loved her, she lived
a big life.
