These are a few of my favorite things: a note from Colten

I met Jordan in July of 2001. I had only known Tristan for about 5 months and she invited me to NYC for a visit. On that visit I met her two dogs, Jordan was almost 5 and Reggie Love was 7. I moved in with Tristan, Reggie and Jordan the very next summer. Since then so much of my life has been about our dogs... Jordan and I have shared some amazing memories and she has taught me a lot. Here are some of my favorite Jordan memories:

Early Morning Runs in the Park. Sunrise trips to Prospect Park to run among the vast pack Brooklyn of dogs. Jordan would take off immediately and run at least 100 yards away from us in pure joy. Reggie would stay closer to us, but was very good at fetching Jordan when we asked her too. Jordan was amazingly fast, always found a stick to carry around, and would only come back to us when she was ready to.
Pictured: Jordan ready to take off!

Road trips! Jordan and I have driven across the country 5 times together. Her favorite place to ride was lying across my lap between me and the steering wheel. She is an excellent car companion and loves to pee in new places, so driving someplace new was a win-win. She even drove with me and TT in a Penske moving van when I moved to Brooklyn.
Pictured: Jordan and I driving west to CA for the summer of 2003.

Hotel Room Living. Jordan traveled with us so often that she thought of hotel rooms as her other home. She was known to do a perimeter search as soon as we got into a room - searching for food and any signs of cats, always checking under the bed which she could often crawl under. This search was reliable and adorable and she wasn't satisfied with a room until she had fully “secured” it. Did not matter to her if it was a Motel 6 or 5-star luxury accommodations, she was just happy to be part of the adventure. When her vision began to go her familiarity with a standard hotel layout served her well.
Pictured: Jordan at the St. Regis in 2008.

Photo Modeling. Jordan was a poser. She loved the camera, loved the attention, and encouraged me to take more photos. She was a charmer in that department, which made up for the fact that Reggie would bark if you even pointed a camera towards her. Jordan had endless patience for the camera, and I credit her with getting me so into taking dog photos.
Pictured: A classic favorite Jordan pic around here, this was taken on our Brooklyn window bench in 2004.

Cat Stalking. Jordan loved cats. Not in a bad way, but in a really super obsessed way. She *needed* to meet the cats, always. If a cat was behind a closed door she would wait, and lick the door, cry and wait some more. Really, she has spent hours waiting outside doors. We called this door waiting routine "cat worshiping," as she would eventually lay down with her head on the floor between her two front paws.
Pictured: Jordan waiting patiently outside the door, hoping for a chance to meet Prince.

Super Fetch. Jordan loved to play fetch. Preferably with really large toys, a deflated soccer ball or football was ideal - but anything she could get her mouth on would do. She was also an incessant barker during these fetch rounds - she'd bring you the ball, drop it and immediately start barking until you threw the ball for her. And she played fetch when she was blind too - it just took some tricky and careful tossing on my part. The only bad part was when I had thrown the ball but she was still barking at me as if I hadn't.
Pictured: Jordan playing fetch in a park - this was a break on a cross country trip driving east.

The Snoring and the Sleeping. Oh, Jordan was adorable in bed. She was fond of sleeping under the covers, which she would do each night until it got too hot then she would stand up and try to find her way to fresh air. And the snoring, she would sleep on her back and snore the night away. Cute unless she was sharing your pillow.
Pictured: Jordan asleep in Ventura on my sister's couch. Waiting for a baby human to arrive is exhausting.

Swimming. This dog loved the water. Lakes, rivers, oceans and kiddie pools. Bring it. Some of my favorite Jordan memories were on the beaches of Santa Barbara and San Diego. Countless rounds of Jordan diving into the ocean after soccer balls. Rubbing in the sand, diving back into the water, shaking it out of her ears. She loved it all.
Pictured: Jordan in the San Diego bay - swimming back with the soccer ball in her mouth.

Jordan on Tour. Jordan was part of the official TT entourage. She traveled to many of Tristan's tour appearances, and that included several college campus stops. It was my job to negotiate Tristan's contract and it always included a rider about Jordan. Slightly awkward to explain at times, Jordan was no teacup-sized purse accessory, but she was very much part of the official package.
Pictured: Jordan waiting for the action to start during a visit to Smith College in Northampton.

Rub outs and Rollover. Those of you who have spent time with Jordan know the adorable noises and actions that add up to her back rubbing squirms and rollover antics. While it started as a technique to apply filth, Jordan adapted it to other tasks like trying to remove her harness or any other clothing like item she didn't want on her - and in 2006 Jordan agreed to let it be put on cue, rolling over and over again for treats.
Pictured: Jordan enjoying getting closer to the ground while on a walk in the park in Greenville.

The Flying Dog. Jordan flew with us on almost all of our big trips. She was just small enough to fit into a carry-on dog bag. This means she flew tucked under the seat by our feet. She never barked, never cried. She was perfect, no one ever knew she was there - not even when she farted... nope, they just thought that was us. And when we would stack our luggage up on a luggage cart she would sit on top of the bags and just balance and waive to all the people - "yes, I am the queen of this stack of bags, thank you." Such a good flying dog she was.
Pictured: Jordan and I nap in ORD waiting on a flight delay.

Jordan the Scrappy Fighter. Yes, she was a fight picker. She always went after dogs bigger than her - including her sister. She played dirty and never seemed to need a reason. This all came about when she was about 7 years old, later we figured it might have been from chronic back pain, or maybe even early brain tumor signs. I will say that she lived the last 4 years of her life in total peace. The scar on my upper lip is a Jordan bite, received while separating Jordan and Reggie in the middle of the night. It was dark and I grabbed her out of the fight, but pulled her up near my face - where I became a casualty...
Pictured: With her vision on the decline Jordan tried to pick a fight through the window with this nice J Crew dog mannequin.

Kissing. When Jordan wasn't fighting she was certainly kissing. She loved licking people’s faces and she would slip you the tongue before you even knew what hit you. Nothing like being coated in Jordan saliva, and this face washing was not reserved for any elite crew, all people and canines alike were subjected to her tongue if they got within reach.
Pictured: Jordan can kiss and drive at the same time. Super talented.

Heat Seeking Missile. One thing Jordan and I both have in common is a love for heat. She would spend hours in the sun in the spring and summer. We called this sun routine "baking." She also liked other sources of heat: heating pads, heating blankets, the hair dryer, towels fresh from the dryer, space heaters and caves of blankets formed around the forced hot air heating system. Jordan joined me on many cold mornings bundled up in a blanket directing heat into our own special cave for two.
Pictured: Jordan baking in the CA sun.

The Dirtiest Dog on the Block. Jordan liked it dirty, no really. I should make a slide show just of her dirtiest pics. She rubbed in dead things, coated herself in mud, or dirt, or sand - really she would used whatever filth was available. Oh, and she loved horse shit, and cow shit. Yes, if it smelled bad she wanted to be coated in it. This also meant Jordan got a LOT of baths, fortunately she didn't mind as long as someone gave her a blowout, did I mention that she really loved the hairdryer?
Pictured: Jordan coated in a mud suit during a visit to a dog park in Colorado.

Jordan filled my life with more adventures than I ever expected a 15lbs black & white package to do. She was a feisty attitude filled bundle of snoring love. And she was a great companion and inspiration for travel. I miss her, but promise to keep up the dog adventuring at home with Reggie and Harley.