Nov. 25, 2023

On Saturday Mr. Waffle the dog quietly passed away. This was unusual because nothing Mr. Waffle ever did was quiet.

We rescued this little Pomeranian in 2009. He had been tied up with a shoestring at a basketball court near PetSmart in Glendale. The kids who brought him into the store said they saw him there for about eight hours. At first they thought someone would return for him but no one did. My daughters and I had just had our dogs groomed at the store. No one was stepping up to rescue him so we did. We tried finding his pet parents; he was not chipped and we had no luck. Also by the time we got him to the car my middle child, Molly, had named him Mr. Waffle and my youngest, Jessy, declared he was all hers. Oh, by the way – during those eight hours and throughout the entire ride home he never stopped barking.

Mr. Waffle barked when the wind blew, and when it did not. He quickly became part of our family and knew immediately that Jessy was his “special human.” But beyond the barking, this little six-pound when soaking wet dog was the definition of loyalty.

Right after sixth grade Jessy had a pretty serious surgery. Mr. Waffle never left her and in fact kept a watchful eye on anyone who came close. He crawled into her suitcase when she went off to college, and secretly visited her dorm room. Jessy loves the beach; Mr. Waffle hated the sand but he was still there, lifting his paws with disgust as he walked along. Anything to be near her.

When she moved out to start her post-college life, Mr. Waffle stayed at home. He would visit her at times but he was getting old and set in his ways. He loved going for “puppuccino” and a croissant at Starbucks, but in his later years that was about as adventurous as he was.

In the end he was blind and we think he had some dementia, but he would still jump around, occasionally bark and hit that decibel that only he could reach … and ate well over his weight in food. But this Thanksgiving it was obvious he was “done,” as our grandson said, and it took Jessy to sit with him and tell him it was okay to cross over. Always the loyal pup, he trusted her words and quietly laid down.

He is survived by the O’Keefe Shelton family including his fellow dogs Dawson, Issac and Lou.