A Memorial: Judah Ben Windham

The past four weeks have dealt me some pretty low blows. And just this last week, the hardest one of all has hit.

My beloved and wonderful puppy, Judah, passed away. He meant more to me than I can ever explain. He was a faithful companion, dear friend and showed me what it meant to love someone other than myself. He will forever be missed, and never forgotten.

I wanted to use this blog as a tribute to some of my wonderful memories of Judah.

- The first day I saw Judah was August 28, 1995. My aunt had given him to me as a present. Now, the story of Judah is a wonderful, faith filled story. I had prayed for a dog for 6 months, with no answer in sight. And then one warm Sunday afternoon, my aunt came to visit. Unbeknown to me, she had gotten me my dog. When I ran out to the car, there Judah lay in the front seat, asleep. I grabbed him, and seriously didn’t let go for months!

- For the first 4 months of Judah’s life, I carried him everywhere! I’m really surprised he learned to walk/run so well, because I would never let him go! I loved just holding him and cuddling with him all day long.

- I use to take pictures of Judah while he would sit on my bed and I would lie on the floor. He would lean over the edge and all his fur would bunch up around his face, making him look like a lion (hence, why his full name is Lion of Judah). I have one of the cutest pictures in my guest bedroom with us doing this.

- Early on I found out that Judah LOVES the Beatles song Hey Jude. I sang it to him constantly. And every time I got to the part where Paul says “Judah, Judah, Judah, Judah” Judah would go crazy.

- We use to play “Hide and go seek”. When I was at home, I’d open the garage door, throw his ball or stick into the side yard, and then hide somewhere in the garage. He was so smart, because after he found me, he would always check that spot first on the next go round. We played hide and go seek for years. Our last game was on Tuesday, January 2, 2007. I hid in the closet. 

- Judah loved to swim. One time though, he got into some serious trouble when he went swimming in my parents’ neighbor’s pond. They had ducks. Judah wanted the ducks. The neighbors were not very happy about that one. We had to get into the pond to get Judah out!

- Another funny Judah story was when we took him swimming in the pond across from our new house. There were loads of ducks and he wanted to swim after them. We figured what was the harm the ducks would just swim away. However, there was one duck that didn’t. Judah kept swimming after this one lone duck, which lured Judah out into the middle of the pond. Just as Judah got close enough to grab him, the duck disappeared. Jonathan and I were looking at each other, then at Judah, and then at where the duck had been. Nothing. Poor Judah swam around for another five minutes completely dumbfounded.

- Last winter when it was really cold outside, we would take Judah to some elementary school playground in Coralville. Jonathan and I would sit in the car with the door open, throw the ball for Judah and then shut the door till he came back just so we could stay warm.

- Some of the silliest pictures of Judah are when he would play in the snow. One picture was taken after he dug through a huge snow pile. His whole face his covered in snow and you can tell that he had the time of his life.

- Judah loved his fuzzy bone. No doubt about it. That puppy took that dirty old stuffed bone everywhere! It was like his security blanket. It was the cutest thing ever.


Those are just a few memories/stories that I have from Judah. He was the sweetest dog that I have ever known and no dog will ever replace him.



I love you, Judah Ben.