OUR QUEEN OF THE REZ has gained her wings. Filled with gratitude for so many years together, we sent our Piper smothered with love over the Rainbow Bridge. Having recently celebrated her 100th birthday, her wobbly hips along with other medical challenges told us the time we dawg people all fear had arrived. We held her close at our Ojai vet’s office and thanked her for sharing her beautiful life with us. Having spent most of her life in the Ojai Valley, we are grateful for the little things and that it was here she would gain her wings and fly free.
From the very beginning when we scooped up this adorable RezMutt on the Navajo Nation, life was a carnival ride with two large mutties. Boone & Piper shared their days with us in Ojai, Lake Tahoe, and four years of full-time life in a 220-square foot home on wheels before settling in Bend, Oregon earlier this year.
We naturally assumed that Boonedocker would show our new dawg ‘the ropes’, however, we quickly learned Piper was our Alpha Girl. Over the years numerous monikers emerged and included Piper Princess, Pooh Girl, our Key West Cutie, the Princess of Ojai, Baroness of Bend and the occasional Clown Dawg, which was a well deserved title. With her expressive eyes – and ears – this girl could capture your heart in no time.
Piper came fully equipped with a clock in her belly that told us when it was exactly 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. The changes as we traveled the country across time zones could be a challenge, but we worked it out along the way. Our girl’s singing abilities when I pulled out the harmonica were off-key yet similar to my harmonica abilities and with her eagle eyes she would easily spot ’the dawg bag’ in our hand when we returned from dinner out. She, of course, thought that was the only reason we left…to get her a snack.
Piper loved Jack & Betsy and those early Ojai pajama walks!
Little did we know the special gift this girl possessed was the magic and comedy she sprinkled into our lives daily. Thank you for 14-1/2 years of joy, along with your high degree of skills as clean up dawg in the kitchen or wherever a scrap of food landed! Godspeed, Princess Piper, and rest well until we meet again.
Piper B. Polk
August 27, 2011 – December 24, 2025
Camp Dawg 