EEY-Oreo (the gloomy old dog)

EDIT: This tag has been retired to my collection. My sweet Oreo passed away in December, 2021.

Mission: To travel with me from cache to cache.

What's black on each end and white in the middle? It's not America's favorite cookie, but my adorable little dog Oreo. Nowadays, he's more gray in the middle, but I've seen photos of him when he was white. Oreo was rescued from a shelter by an elderly couple around 2010. The husband passed away in 2011. I befriended his widow, Shirley, as I walked past her house the evening after his funeral and she offered me a bouquet of flowers. I spent most of the first half of 2018 sitting with Shirley in her home for several hours a day as she was dying. Some days she could get out and I'd load her and Oreo into my van for a drive along the Lake Michigan shoreline and a stop at the Fair Trade store for a couple of our favorite chocolate bars. During Shirley's last month, Oreo would jump in my van when I was ready to leave, so I'd take him home with me and let him hang out with my dog Boo for a couple of hours, then return him to Shirley. The day Shirley died, Oreo was supposed to go home with Shirley's closest friends, but he jumped into my van and they said it was obvious he'd chosen me and bonded with me already, and he's been my dog ever since. It's been a challenge at times, convincing two old dogs that they are no longer only children. Boo is a jealous dog and Oreo is a needy dog... not a fun combination of personalities! But we are a family, along with my daughter and her two young dogs Jack and Winky. Well... maybe more of a pack...