Dogs in My Life

I have never had a dog to call my very own.  All the dogs in my life may have lived in my house but they belonged to another member of my family.

"If you can't decide between a Shepherd, a Setter or a Poodle,
get them all --adopt a mutt!"...ASPCA

Sleepy:  A dark, short-hair, medium sized dog of unknown origins showed up one day and my Mother adopted him. My young brother played doctor with him and would put band aids and bandages all over him and Sleepy allowed it.  One time, no matter how many threats, yells or rocks I threw at him,  he followed me to school and a car struck him.  I was more afraid of being late than of tending to Sleepy and all through my classes I wondered about our dog. When I got home, ready to let everyone in the family know that our dog was gone, Sleepy was in his usual place in front of the heater.  He slowly got up to greet me and my mother said, "I don't know what is wrong with him, he has been sleeping all day."  I told her what had happened and she checked him to make sure he had no broken bones and my father said, "He'll be all right."  In a few days, Sleepy was back to normal. I do not remember what happened to him.

Mickey: A cute little puppy my brother bought for our younger brother.  It was a tan and white puppy and we all loved to play with him. On a hot day, Mickey crawled underneath the car to sleep and when my brother backed up to get out of the driveway, he ran over him and our cute, little puppy was gone.

Mike: A dog with the markings of a collie that my brother again purchased for my younger brother. He was like a grown up Mickey! My Mother was the one that was home so she took care of Mike.  Mike was great with us, but hated mailmen. At spotting the mailman, he became like Cujo, from Stephen King's novel.  Indoors he was fine and played with the neighborhood children. When he was outside, we kept him tied up. One day, as the mailman came up our steps, Mike's lounges broke the chain and he attacked the poor frightened man.  Luckily, all the damage done was the tearing of the man's pants, from his thigh to his ankle. I remember my Mother kneeling beside the mailman, embarrassed and apologetic, pinning the gray pant leg. After a few more attacks and fines we could not pay, Animal Control took him away.

Brownie:  A reddish brown chow who looked mean but was very gentle. He looked like a furry bear.

I remember the neighborhood children playing with him and the smaller children would ride him like a horse. When I got married, Brownie stayed with my parents and he lived a long life until he died.

Skipper: Black and white English Springer Spaniel puppy I bought for my children.  They were too young and I was at work all day, so I know that Skipper must have had a horrible time being alone. I put paper down all over the floor for him and he would find the smallest area not covered to do his business. I ended up giving Skipper to my parents because I did not think it was good to leave him alone for such long periods.  My father told me that Skipper was the smartest dog he had ever had. "I just have to think something, and it's as if he knows what I am thinking." I am sure Skipper was much happier running around the large yard and not cooped up in our basement!

Chico:  Now that my children were older, my daughter wanted to have a dog of her own.  We went
to a pet store and looked at all the puppies they had for sale.  I fell in love with a dark German Shepherd and encouraged her to look at how peppy he was and how he followed us with his eyes. She had her eyes on a mixed Collie/Australian Blue Heeler with beautiful hazel eyes. The pup got up and as he walked around he had a distinct limp. "You don't want a dog that is injured," I told my daughter, "look how he limps." She insisted that she liked the dog.  No matter how I tried to convince her, she had her heart set on the limper. She won the argument and we brought him home and turned him loose in our front room.  He limped around, sniffed a few times and then began walking normal. Chico, as she named him, never limped again.  I often wonder if that was his ploy to make someone have sympathy for him so that he would get a caring home!

When we were in the mountains, he had no fear of heights and loved jumping into the river to play in the water. I can still picture him running over the large, flat rocks at Lake Powell. When we were on the boat, he would take a nap on the floor of the boat.  My neighbors have told me stories on how he would unlatch the front gate with his nose and visit the neighborhood.  When he returned, he would shut the gate and push the latch down locking the gate. Many times Animal Control would come a few minutes after Chico had crawled into his house and Chico would be found curled up and asleep. My neighbor told me that no matter how Animal Control tried, they could never catch Chico outside the yard.  Of course, during that time, I always thought Chico stayed in the yard all day.  Chico and I bonded when my daughter went away to college and then to the Peace Corps.

Poker:  One day my son came home with a white puppy with black spots. The dog had huge paws and if I had known anything about dogs, I would have known that the puppy would grow to become a horse!  Poker was a chewer....clothes on the line, shoes, or the siding on my house. My daughter played soccer and on cold days, Poker would stretch across eight bare legs to keep the girls warm.

Black Sabbath:  Around the same time, my son brought another dog home.  This one was large, black and happy.  Poker and Sabbath played all over the yard while Chico watched. To me, Chico had class and wasn't going to be bothered with two silly rambunctious dogs. Sabbath was weird, because he loved to crawl into dark places.  At the soccer games when Poker was warming up the girls, Sabbath would crawl underneath the bleachers. He was content in a secluded corner.

One day,  the three dogs disappeared.  We looked all over the neighborhood but there was no sign of Chico, Poker or Black Sabbath. After a few days of searching we gave up and decided that our dogs were gone.  About a week later I received a call from a man who lived about eight miles from my house.  He said all three dogs had appeared one morning and he had been feeding them. He thought they had followed the railroad tracks. The man wondered where the three dogs belonged and when he saw Chico's tags. he called us. My daughter and I went to pick them up and two huge dogs and one medium sized dog filled up our car with a horrible smell. I do not know what happened to Black Sabbath.  Poker, I drove to a shelter in hopes that they would find a farm for him where he would have space to run.  Chico lived a full life. He was old, had a growth on his eye and was having problems walking and my daughter had him put to sleep.

Duke: My father loved dogs and he found a black German Shepherd and named him Duke. I was afraid of the dog. He snapped at my older brother.  When I visited my father and the dog was loose in the yard,  I would stand outside the fence and throw rocks at my father's window so he could come out and control the dog. Duke died of old age.

Vanessa: After Duke, Dad got another red Chow. When my Dad passed away, my son took Nessa to live with him. My grandchildren enjoyed playing with her and she liked to play soccer with them. When my granddaughter took Nessa for a walk, it was all she could do to hold Nessa. It always seemed that Nessa was taking my granddaughter for a walk!  Nessa was a good friendly dog and when I visited I liked to brush her. I would fill a grocery bag with her fur. Every year she seemed to get slower and slower until one day she passed away in her sleep. She was buried in the back yard and my grandchildren placed a wooden cross on her grave.

Pablo:  This dog belongs to my family in California.  A white, gentle dog that when I visit, he is told,  "Look, grandma's here."  Every year they bake him a special dog cupcake and celebrate his birthday. On his last birthday he was eleven.

Chewbacca:  A Standard Poodle belonging to my brother and sister in law.  I fell in love with Chewbacca because it was as if he understood everything.  They told me stories of things he does, and I have come to the conclusion that dogs are smart, clever and understand more than they are given credit.  After a visit, I was saying good bye to Chewbacca and as I got his face in my hands and told him how much I had enjoyed meeting him, he stood up.  Standing he was taller than I am and he gently placed his head on my shoulder.

"A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself."  Josh Billings