Lizbeth Memorial

Lizbeth died at my feet sometime in the early morning of September 25, 1998, so quietly that I did not notice exactly the hour. She was thirteen years and seven months old at the time of her death.

Lizbeth was whelped sometime in March, 1985. She came to me in August of that year with the litter name of Oreo, which seemed to me to be in poor taste.

Lizbeth came to public attention owing to my book Travels with Lizbeth which recounted our experiences with homelessness in 1988-1991. Some additional details of her life are recounted in an essay that appeared in Living with the Animals, edited by Gary Indiana. Lizbeth appeared in a video segment of Declarations a documentary mini-series that appeared on PBS, on CBS Sunday Morning, in People Magazine, Texas Monthly, Time, The New York Times Book Review, and in numerous newspapers.

In these pictures, made two months before her death, Lizbeth displays an uncharacteristic skepticism of the camera. Her buddy Cliff assists her in posing in our messy little apartment in the Deep Eddy area of Austin, TX. She was having some difficulty getting around her last summer and seemed to be in a general decline, but she had better days, as in these picture, up to the last. (Click on picture for larger version.)

These pictures were made on sunny day in San Antonio a year before Lizbeth's death. (Click picture for larger version.)

In spite of my speculating in the book that it might be appropriate for her to go to a Dumpster when her time came, Lizbeth's remains were cremated. On the Day of the Dead we built an altar for her and brought out the redwood box in which her ashes are sealed.