Roxie’s Story

Final Update to Roxanne Sweetie Pie Crank’s Story

August 1, 2012 – February 13, 2021

Our Blue Princess

A Gift from above
Rays of Descending Love 
Her eyes shone bright
 Spirits took flight
 This was our Roxie Girl


 Written by her Papa 
On the occasion of our Father God taking Roxie from our earthly journey through the night to the day.

It has taken me these 6 months to be able to write this story. I cannot express with what sadness and sorrow I write this final chapter of Roxie’s Story. At the same time, I write it with joy and thankfulness for having been allowed to have such a beautiful blessing for over 8 years.

On February 13, 2021, at 11:57 PM, Roxie left this world. She was one week away from giving birth to her second litter, her first being in 2014. We had hoped to save some part of her beautiful spirit.

She had a sudden onset of seizures and passed away without pain or lingering. For this, I am grateful. We were with her and able to share in her passing.

The day she left us, she got in the chair with me for snuggles, which was an everyday thing, but she stayed on my shoulder, giving me long looks, and snuggles for almost three hours. In hindsight, she spent one on one time with us both that day. She must have somehow known she was leaving us. She wanted us both close by all day. We thought it was because of the impending birth, we were wrong.

I have never known a dog with such a beautiful spirit. From the day we were sent to rescue her until the last moment she was with us, she was a source of comfort, strength, love, perfect companionship, and joy. The whole 8 years we had her, she and I were only apart for what may have amounted to 1 week.

She was my constant companion. Often, when Papa was away from home working, she and I were the only ones around for weeks on end. We were happy together.

Roxie was not only my service dog, but she was a service dog to anyone she met. She has indicated three different cancers in different people, indicated the onset of seizures, indicated to diabetics their elevated and low blood sugar, she indicated heart disease and lung disease, and the onset of active stages in a close friend with Lyme disease.

Roxie always gave hugs and comfort to those in stress or anxiety and tried her best, with much success, to alleviate their pain.

She was a role model for the misunderstood Pit Bull breed. I can’t tell you how many times I had people tell me she had changed their minds about the breed and helped them understand they were misinformed. They even stopped me in stores to ask about her and tell me they had been watching her and could see how amazing she was.

The first thing most people would say, almost without exception, was “Oh, look at those eyes.” Her eyes were always filled with love especially for anyone, any creature, who was small.

I could regale you for hours with memories and stories of our Blue Princess. Instead, I’ll just share some memories in photos with you.

She had many friends across the country as she traveled with us from 2016-2020 when we settled back home here in Mississippi. She was happy and loved her place here. She is buried in the back of the property and we have planted flowers there for her as she loved flowers so much.

For those of you who were blessed to meet her and have her in your lives, you know the treasure she was. She loved you and we thank you for loving her.

Three months before she passed we had the unexpected opportunity to get a second pit bull puppy. Roxie, of course, was the one to decide. She picked him out and got into the car telling him to get in as well. For three months she helped Thor and allowed him to be a part of her pack.

Many of you know Roxie as you have been on this journey with us since she came to us on December 13, 2013. For those of you who don’t know her, please give yourself the gift of reading her story in the original post below.

Roxie’s Original Story (written March 2, 2014)

This is kind of a different blog post for me, but I really wanted to share this story with you. Almost 3 months ago, my husband saw a sign at our farm supply store for blue pit bulls for sale. He had been looking for one so we decided to go and take a look.  

When we arrived we were shocked at what we found.  An elderly man, who had recently had a stroke, was trying to care for at least 12 dogs, various fowl, and a few other animals.  He was obviously having a hard time doing this because Roxie (as we named her) and a few others were in very bad shape.  If we had been another week, I don’t think she could have been saved.

When she put those soft dark eyes on us, we knew she was ours. Papa didn’t even ask me, he just reached into his pocket and took out all the money for her. We brought her home. This is what she looked like that day…

WARNING: the picture is hard to see.

She was not but a few days away from irreversible starvation. Roxie was 16 months old and had lived in a small yard with no human interaction. She had no discipline or manners. We knew this going in and had no reservations about helping her.

We had been followers of Cesar’s Way for years, so we felt equipped to handle the challenge of rescuing this Pit Bull. Boy, are we thankful we did.

After almost three months, she is a completely different dog. She is healthy, just a few issues left to deal with and they will resolve in short order with continued nutrition.  

I can’t wait for you to see the photos of her now. She obeys simple commands: sit, wait, stay (for a little while anyway), come, and a few others.  She is learning manners with the pack and her humans.

She has never been bred (thankfully) and has great maternal instincts as she demonstrates them with other animals here on the farm. She no longer has any issues with food protection, hoarding, or gobbling. We can put our hands in her bowl, touch her, touch the food, whatever we need to do.  She has learned her place in the pack and is secure in that.

I must say I have never had a dog with as sweet a spirit as Roxie has. As you know, I am usually a Lab person, but I cannot say enough about this girl’s sweet attitude.

The stereotype about dogs has to be exposed for the lie it is. Different breeds are just that, different. Some are more strong-willed, energetic, and naturally disposed to certain behaviors, but how the dog is taught and treated is what results in the dog’s behavior. I can say that my chocolate lab is more stubborn on behavioral issues than Roxie.

I was triggered to write this article because of Roxie with the flowers. We were getting ready for our pack walk and just before I was going to put on their leashes, Roxie trotted off into the fruit orchard.  

I assumed she had to use the bathroom so was going to wait for her. No, that was not what she was doing at all.  She went straight to the daffodils that were just blooming, put her nose in them and took a very deep sniff.  

She seemed to say “aww” with her body and breath. Then she took one more nice deep smell, ran to me, and sat down to have her leash put on, tail wagging uncontrollably.

I just was able to snap this shot, it all happened so fast. In that moment, I felt such joy and so blessed that we had brought her to our home. I would have missed this pure expression of love, enjoyment, and peace of one of God’s creatures enjoying His creation.

Roxie’s great maternal instincts continue to surprise and bless me. She will be three years old in August of 2015. The only lingering issues she has are her teeth are small from being malnourished during development, craven fear of gunfire, and difficulty with tolerating the heat.

She is healthy, happy, and home!

Here are a few pictures of Roxie:

Roxie with her master, my husband J This was taken after about 6 months