Roscoe

I am going to get something out of the way first. We have had 3 pets: 2 cats and a dog. Most nights, all 5 of us are in the bed together, with my wife and I often pretzel-ing into sleepy shapes that can accommodate where our fluffballs posted up for the night. We are that kind of pet family.

The summer my wife and I got married, we found our first pet, Toast. She was a little white cat living in the bushes outside of our rented house. A few years later we bought our first house, and immediately went to the shelter and adopted a dog, our second pet Roscoe. Several years later while visiting Idaho we came across a small grey kitty out in the middle of nowhere and took him home and named him Ash.

This post is about our good boy Roscoe.

Breaking in the new house

My wife and I bought our first house in late 2014, a few years after I started teaching high school math. She had recently graduated and was going to start work as an elementary school teacher and we felt the time was right to lock in a location. We intentionally got a house with a fenced backyard knowing we wanted to get a dog.

In December we visited our local Humane Society and went on a hunt for our new friend. We knew we wanted a dog, had a preference for a medium-to-large dog over a small one, and wanted one at least a few years old to skip some of the puppy responsibilities. On our first lap we didn’t find any dogs that felt right, so took a detour around Kitty City to look at cute cats. Before leaving we took one last loop through the dog area and came across the most dapper boy in the joint.

Roscoe was 3 years old, a mix of pit bull and border collie, and had a black coat with white accents on his feet, chest, and head. He looked like he was wearing a tuxedo and was JAZZED to see us. On our first lap he had been out with someone else, but now was back in his pen looking for a family. We took him outside to play for a bit, marveled at how well behaved he was towards other dogs, and fell in love. We went right back inside and adopted our good boy.

Shiny reflections

While our love for Roscoe was absolute. we did learn quickly about a few of Roscoe’s “quirks”. First, he absolutely barked at other dogs, losing his mind in excitement at a chance to meet new friends. He was never aggressive, but his manic excitement didn’t usually lead to a chill meet-and-greet experience. He was also big, strong, and determined. His excitement and strength overpowered our discipline and we spent years struggling to take him on walks without feeling like he would choke himself to death.

Roscoe also loooooved shiny reflections. It could be a flashlight, the sun coming through the window, reflections off of a watch/phone, or sunlit water reflections from doing dishes. You don’t realize how many things make shiny reflections until you have a 65 pound horse-dog hyperfixated on the reflection, ripping up carpet and drooling obsessivley over that spot for 30 minutes after the shiny stopped. Our cat did not care one bit about the cat laser pointer we used, but Roscoe was in mind-blown heaven when we got that out. He learned to not get it out.

One year early on we had a family Christmas event at my parent’s house so we brought Roscoe to introduce him to the family. At this point all of my siblings were grown and many had started families of their own. We met at my parent’s place and relived the hits from growing up. We had a tree lit up with lights and presents ready to be opened. Our dog only had one thought the entire time: get those lights! By the end of the night, my family knew Roscoe very well, including his ability to drench a carpet with his drool because he spent 2 hours staring at the lights on the ground and licking the carpet to get a taste.

Stuffies

Roscoe loved anything plush. When we first adopted him, we was sent home with a little plush dragon toy. Roscoe was surprisingly careful with his dragon, but instantly made it known that other plush toys in the house were fair game. After enough time, the dragon was lost to too much rough love and needed replaced.

We first replaced dragon with dragon. While the replacement dragon lasted an okay amount of time, it was clear that it did not have the same “don’t destroy this” mentality in our boy’s mind than his original adoption dragon had. We tried several different versions of hard and soft toys, but he always wanted plush and always wanted to plush hard.

For several years Roscoe’s go-to Christmas present was a plush tree stump filled with little plush squirrels hidden inside. He lost his damn mind over those squirrels and found intense pleasure by squeaking their little squeakers. It is an understatement to describe that as annoying, but he loved it so we tolerated the few days those squirrels survived.

Eventually we struck gold when we learned that the dog plush toys with a rope “skeleton” seemed to be decently Roscoe-proof. The rope made it way harder to rip off little plushy limbs. Our first rope-skeleton-plushy was a little white bear. This rope bear stuck and stuck, only needing occasional surface repairs. He loved this bear, gradually shifting from trying to destroy the rope bear to carrying it around and sleeping with. This bear lasted so long that it got a name, Robear (“rope bear” but like a French-ish “Robert”).

Over the years, Robear struggled to keep up with the tough love so a replacement rope bear was brought in, this time a brown bear. Brobear (“brown rope bear”) was instantly part of the crew. We had intended to retire the original Robear but Roscoe would have none of it and wanted both. At least this allowed us to wash one while he still had access to the other!

Last to join the plushy rope-skeleton family was Mr. Fox. We got very creative with the name, and Roscoe barely acknowledge how creative we were in naming a fox plushy animal Mr. Fox. Genius is rarely recognized.

Roscoe would regularly pile up his three friends Robear, Brobear, and Mr. Fox onto his bed and sleep with them. He would take at least one with him around the house, and we sometimes had a crew member or two in our own bed. Roscoe played hard with the toys he loved, and these toys loved him back.

Three’s Company

Cartoons taught me that cats and dogs do not get along. Experience taught me that pet relationships are complicated.

Our first pet, Toast, was a cat that liked being an only pet. She wants all attention and honestly deserves it. She wasn’t a fan of Roscoe joining our family, but seemed to tolerate it enough to mostly avoid him. On his end, Roscoe didn’t seem intent on terrorizing or chasing our cat. Coexist! Most of the time.

Over time, Toast got more brave around Roscoe. Sometimes Toast wanted our attention, and sometimes Toast just wanted to roll the dice and see what would happen, but she loved to go to wherever Roscoe was snoozing away and pick away at the fabric right by his head. If that didn’t get him to react, she would circle around where he was sleeping, sniff his butt, and sometimes put out a little nibble on his paws. Eventually he would get fed up and snap at her. Despite the size/strength difference and his aggravation, Roscoe never hurt Toast.

After our 3rd pet Ash joined, this dynamic changed a bit. Ash is a skittish cat. When new people come over, Toast and Roscoe run up looking for friends. Ash hides upstairs and waits hours after everyone left before coming downstairs. However, Ash was not scared of Roscoe. Ash quickly inserted himself as the police responding to a domestic dispute. When Toast pushed Roscoe into reacting, Ash was right there meowing in Roscoe’s face letting him know not to even think about doing that again. His tail would get fluffy and he would go nose to nose hissing at a dog several times larger.

Ash also liked to look out for Roscoe. When it was mealtime and Roscoe was hungry, Ash was the one that would let us know. When Roscoe wanted me to let him inside our outside, Ash would do everything in his tiny little power to make us drop whatever we were doing and go take care of Roscoe.

Saying goodbye

Roscoe brought so much love and joy into our house. Most exercise I got was because of him and his insistence on going to dubs (walks). He slept with us in our bed every night for 12 years. Roscoe refused to be in an empty room and only went where we went. I work remotely and most days included hours of us together.

In December 2025 we had a scare when Roscoe suffered an unexpected seizure. Across several pet hospital and vet visits, we never really determined what was wrong. But between this and a large growth on his side we knew our time was coming to an end. In the 9 months that followed, Roscoe had the best time we could give him filled with love, naps, and treats. However, his health continued to decline as new issues popped up and his list of daily medications grew.

On Saturday, September 26, 2026 we said goodbye. We are beyond sad and miss him dearly, but feel relief that his pain is over. The silence we feel in this house is too loud to ignore. It will be a while before I stop expecting to hear his clicking down the hall to come join me for work.

Roscoe, I love you, I miss you, and I hope to see you again. You are a good boy.

Written by me, mostly for me.