The Adventures of Team Daniels: Remembering Frito Pie

Nine years ago Abe and I decided it was time.

Time to get a family dog. We wanted some type of doodle mix to cut back on allergies. We were open to adopt an older dog who needed a loving family to call their own. A friend from church happened to be looking to rehome her labradoodle. And so began DanFam5.1.

She was about 2 1/2 years old at the time. Her name was actually Daisy. That wasn't going to work for obvious reasons. Lots of suggestions came from the kids, like Frito Pie-TV-Don't Bite Eli. We settled on Frito Pie. Immediately Frito Pie was a beloved member of our family.

Being a dog with experience she came potty trained and had lots of great behaviors. Her one downfall the former owner warned us about was that she loved to run, and if she escaped without a leash she would not return until she was ready.

Since we had three children under 5 years old at the time, it didn't take much for her to slip out of a door that was left ajar, or often wide open. That darn dog would run around and let you get just close enough that you thought you were going to catch her, but then she would run and run. She would go missing for about 20 minutes, then check in. We would get close enough to think we were going to catch her and then the whole cycle would repeat. This would go on for a couple hours. Eventually when she was darn good and ready she would come home.

Once we took her to the lake and let her off the leash. When it was time to go home she was not ready. We started driving and she was racing alongside us. That was one of her favorite activities. She could run about 30 mph. We drove by some people in the park and they were like, "Is that your dog chasing you?" And to the stranger's bewilderment we yelled, "Yeah!" out the window as we kept driving.

The first time we took her to my parents' house I was a little leery of letting her run free. She had a blast all weekend and absolutely loved it. When we were loading the car at 5 am I was looking for her. We found her sitting in the car by herself, waiting for us. Bless her heart. She was abandoned found on the street as a puppy. Then she was given to the lady we got her from, and then she was given to us. She did not want to get left behind ever again. I always promised Frito whenever we went on vacation without her that we would come back for her.

If she thought we were leaving without her, she was a bit like my Dad and would sit in the car and wait for us.

We finally broke her of her bad running habit. But then we discovered that in her heart of hearts she was a hunter. A nat born killer. Opossums, squirrels, frogs, birds, rabbits, cats. Yes, cats. It broke my heart every time, but if something small got too close, it was a goner. Darn dog never showed a bit of remorse.

Not any regrets even when the toads made her foam at the mouth.

Frito loved taking walks.

If there was water to be found, she had to take a dip. Never actually swim, but always get wet.

My Big Dog was a great blue bonnet poser.

She enjoyed celebrating the holidays.

Field trips, no matter how small, were exciting. Frito was always ready to jump in the car and go anywhere with me. Getting there was half the fun.

We made many park trips when the kids were little.

Traveling with the family was one of Frito's favorite activities. She became a well-traveled doggy:

Kansas

Kentucky

Arbuckle Wilderness, Oklahoma

Colorado Springs

Broken Bow, Oklahoma

South Korea

On her flight here she even got to spend a night in the doggy spa in Germany.

Side note: most of the Koreans were terrified of her because she is so much bigger than their tiny little dogs. But not all the Koreans were afraid. Frito made good friends with the crossing guard for school, among others.

This summer Frito became sick. She was anemic, and then we learned she had a ruptered tumor on her spleen. They were able to remove the whole spleen, but only after a blood transfusion, which had to wait a couple days until they could locate enough blood for her because their doggies are so small here. The surgery was successful, but the doctor assumed there would be more cancer in her future.

She came home with a cone of shame. We had this tape on the floor for Kids Kamp, and for some funny reason Frito kept lying right in the box.

It did not take long and Frito was back to herself, doing the things that she loved.

But mostly she just loved being with DanFam5.2. And we loved her back.

The cancer came back much sooner than we hoped. She was feeling fine, but within four days she went from feeling fine to feeling bad and passing away.

We sure will miss our Big Dog.