Friends and pets

I want to thank everyone for your calls, your messages and emails. I am so grateful for your expressions of sympathy over losing my little doggie pal. You have been blessed by loving pets also, and understood how devastating a loss this is. Thanks Sally and Nancy for lunch today, it helped get me out of the low mood.

Buddy, my little old black dog had a special treat today. He's a dog's dog. He hates being an only dog. I don't know if I ever told you how I came to get Buddy. I had a sweet little dachsie girl for 18 years, and another one before that for the same length of time. I didn't think I could go through another loss so I was dogless for several years. I had a lovebird though, and then two of them. But, I missed having a waggint tails when I came home from work, and a dog to snuggle with and play ball with, or walk with. I started thinking I have such a good home for pets, I really should try to find an older less adoptable dog that would like a home with me. I went to the shelter to look at another dachsie, but it was young and ever so adoptable. They also had Buddy. Buddy had come to the shelter on his own. He checked himself in. They closed up one night and when they reopened in the morning, there was Buddy. They never did figure out how he got over the fences, and could not find a way he could have got under it, or the gates. Buddy loves other dogs. I think he was lonely and just climbed the fence to be with other canines. Once he climbed a ladder here to get over a fence. He was like an escape artist. He could really jump high also, so my gates and fences had to be maintained and designed to hold him in. He loves people too and would happily go with anyone. As sweet as he is - he does not believe in exclusive relationships. Hmmmm? Reminds me of my ex. LOL

Well, I took Buddy straight to the vet for a check up. He was already about 4 years old or so, and I wanted to make sure he was healthy. I held him on the vet's table against my waist while he was being examined. Everything was going good, and the vet said, he has a very slow heartbeat. He looked a bit concerned, and I stepped back a bit to look at Buddy only to find he was sound asleep. We had a laugh and he got his clean bill of health.

When I got him home, he ran straight across the room, up on my bed and up on the highest pillow, where he plopped himself down and went right back to sleep for about 24 hours. He never made a sound. It was about two weeks before I heard him make a tiny little noise in his throat. And another week or two before he barked. Isn't that strange? I talked to the shelter and they said he never slept while he was there, he was just so happy to be surrounded by other dogs, he could not rest.

After about two weeks, he was still sleeping most of the time, and he just looked sad, even though I knew he liked me and his surroundings. And after they had told me how much he enjoyed being with the other dogs, I realized he was lonely for his own species. He was depressed. And if you've ever had a depressed dog, you know exactly what I mean. That's when we adopted Lady. Lady was Buddy's dog. That's the way it worked. When I got Suzie, she was my dog, but Buddy had Lady until she died. By then he and Suzie were such good friends, he transferred his attention to her, and didn't go into another depression.

My youngest son and his family live downstairs in the big house, while I am upstairs in the mother in law quarters. They have three dogs now. They got them all after I got mine. They have a separate yard from mine and so often don't see each other for days on end. But we will make an effort to get them together every day now so Buddy will have dog friends to play with. I've always babysat the kids dogs when they travel, and they did the same for me. So the dogs all know each other and get along great.

I started out to tell you about Buddy's special treat and then got sidetracked. The city opened it's first dog park this week. My son and granddaughter took Buddy and one of their dogs there. It was crowded and Buddy had the best time. He loved the crowd of dogs. He did some of the activities, but mainly he wanted to sniff and meet all the dogs. When he got home he ran straight to my chair, and up on my lap with the happiest look on his face and wanted to tell me about it. He also wanted hugs and pats. It was very like a kid after his first day at school. Very sweet.

He's curled up on my lap now, in Suzie's special place. He always understood it was her place until now. I guess we will adapt and feel Suzie's loss less and less as the days go by. I keep telling myself this.

I'll take him to the dog park tomorrow for some play time.