On the Friday after Thanksgiving in 2017, I went dog shopping. A couple of months before that I lost my best dog ever Oscar to bone cancer. He was only seven and I had hoped for at least two or three more years with him. He was a big lab mix and without a doubt, a person in a dog suit. A very nice person, I might add. But the sorrow came and for weeks I was without a dog for the first time since I got the dog hunger at about the age eight and begged until I got a dog.
Normally, since then, I always had more than one dog and when I knew I was going to lose one of those dogs to age, I’d get another dog before that happened. But Oscar really didn’t like other dogs. He tolerated them, but he was a loner. Plus, I had no idea he was going to have cancer and leave me too soon. Once he got sick, I didn’t want to stress him with a young dog bothering him. That is why I found myself without a dog in the fall of 2017. I intended to wait a while to get another dog. Thought maybe that would make it easier to take a trip or two, but I did feel really lonely when I went walking on the farm. Very lonely.
Enter my dog loving granddaughter. I didn’t start looking for dogs to adopt, but she started looking for me. She found one she thought was really cute at the humane shelter in a nearby town. She was off school the day before Thanksgiving. She said I should go look at this dog she’d found and she’d go with me. A grandmother can never turn down a granddaughter. So, off we went. The workers at the shelter brought out the dog she’d seen online. He was cute, some sort of hound mix, I think. Short haired. Very energetic and running here and there in the enclosed area where we got to visit with him and him with us. He didn’t really seem all that happy to get to know us.
They took him back to his place while we thought about it and looked at some of the other dogs. It’s hard to be in those shelters with all the dogs looking at you with big eyes asking to be rescued. And then I saw this black furry dog in his kennel. He looked about the right size, about 55 pounds. The worker said he was probably two years old. The very size I wanted and past puppy age. They let us take him out into another fenced in area. He didn’t run around like crazy. He did what you see in the picture up top. He got as close to me as he could and laid his head against my chest. I was a goner.
But I didn’t adopt him that day. I thought I should consult my husband and bring a different vehicle to take the new dog home. I told them I would come back Friday and would they hold him until then. They said no. That if someone wanted to adopt him before I came back, then he’d be gone. The next day was Thanksgiving. I couldn’t go back that day, but I was there at opening time on Friday.
We did all the paperwork. I gave them the fee. I promised I’d give him a good home. I didn’t have a fence, but I had a farm with lots of room for him. They handed his leash to me and we headed to my van. They didn’t tell me that he was terrified of cars. Maybe they didn’t know. Nobody walked out with me. I hadn’t brought anyone with me. I opened the back hatch and shoved him in. He jumped right out. Twice. I gave up on that and put him in the back seat door and somehow managed to close it before he escaped.
He started panting like he knew the end of the world was upon us. I got behind the wheel, thinking he would stay in the backseat. I thought wrong. As soon as I started up the car, he leaped over the center console between the two front seats and was ready to help me drive. I held him off with one hand and drove with the other hand the twenty plus minutes it took us to get home. Talk about distracted driving! I don’t know which of us was happier to park the car at my house and get out. Me, I think.
I came up with his name on the way home. Frankie seemed right, but later I wondered it I should have tried a calmer name. Sleepy maybe. LOL. He wasn’t sleepy or calm, and it didn’t take me long to know I needed that yard fence the humane shelter people wanted me to have. Any time Frankie was outside, he had to be on leash or he’d run off to the neighbors or down the road or wherever he wanted to without the first notice of me calling him. Or worse, he’d look at me and keep going. It was a rough few months.
He was very skinny after having been picked up as a stray, but with regular feeding, he started growing. He was obviously not the two year old calm dog I had expected and wanted. We decided he was in his wild and wooly teens. He came home at 55 pounds and in a few months was nearing 100 pounds. And still not listening.
To save my sanity and so I wouldn’t have to worry about what trouble he might get into, we built that fence. The best investment I’ve ever made. Now he can go out and bark at the coyotes without me worrying that he will be off chasing them. He has grown out of his teens, but he’s still a rascal. He still only listens when he doesn’t have something he’d rather do. He still runs off to the neighbors whenever he gets an opening.
But he keeps me in shape walking him. He keeps me on my toes trying to stay one step in front of him and keep him out of trouble. He tries to eliminate our mole problem, one mole at a time. He loves kids and other dogs. Marley, who came into our family in 2019, loves him.
And this weekend is his gotcha day. He doesn’t know it, but he does know this is his forever home. He might go visit the neighbors. He might chase a deer off to who knows where while we’re walking out on the farm and take forever to come back out of the woods, but so far, he’s always come back to where he knows I’ll be waiting at the gate. He’s scared of thunder and gunshots, but has figured out that the basement makes a good storm shelter. He still doesn’t like getting in the car but he is not as hard to get in the backseat as he used to be. Practically jumped in on his own the last time he had to go to the vet.
He’s often been a challenge. But he makes up for that by still sometimes putting his head on my chest or settling down on my feet. He may not be the best dog ever the way Oscar was, but he’s been fun and kept things interesting.
What do you think is the best thing about having a dog?
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When I first got Ollie, he was about 4-6 months old. Definitely still a puppy. The house training went ok and he even learned the boundaries for my yard. He stayed inside the fence even with the gate open. But then he met the neighbors during a neighborhood cookout. After that, he had permission from them to visit. All the time. And that’s when he decided the entire neighborhood is his territory. (One neighbor even asked if he could remove the fence between our yards.) I spent about two years trying to re-teach him where his bound are. Hahaa! Now I’m ok with sharing him with everyone else. Ollie has his own little routine and agenda and seems to have everyone else trained, instead of the other way around. It’s Ollie’s world and we’re just living in it. He’s definitely a special pup and living the good life. And I know he’s very loved and in good hands even when he’s not home with me.
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Oh, to be an Ollie and loved by one and all, Lavon. Frankie might not be so loved by our neighbors since he might decide to have the neighbors’ ducks or chickens for lunch. I’m thinking he learned some things about supplementing his diet while he was a stray. But he is lovable and he does want to see the kids, any kids. Well, any people, as far as that goes. He’s never met a stranger. And I don’t think he’s ever seen a fence he didn’t want to find a way to the other side.
Their devotion to you. They are always so happy to see you, it’s a good feeling.
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You are so right, Connie. Frankie and Marley do like seeing me when I get home if it’s only to let them out or in. 🙂 But I had a cockerspaniel some time ago that made you feel as though you were the most important person in the world whenever you came home.