From commentor Josefina:
Rescue 1: I knew I shouldn’t adopt a dog here in the city before I had time for it. So before I went freelance, I gave a lot of thought to my dog-related requirements: a medium-sized female, black so the shedding wouldn’t show as much. Through a convoluted yet boring series of events, I ended up with the akita-Holstein mix you see here. He was a year or so old, found wandering in Central Park, wearing a bandana and no tags. I named him Jove. And truly, in his nectarine-sized brain, Jove was the dog among dogs, canine sublimity made flesh. Jove was not a fighter; he was all about pre-emptive arrogance, a lot of chin- thrusting and chest-bumping bluffoonery. That, and a selective blindness regarding any quadruped bigger than he was. (He once nearly broke his own neck, refusing to see a cow.) He gleefully rolled in stench and horror: rotting pigeons, fish, seals; shit from deer, cattle, humans. I never quite understood the phrase “egg-sucking dog” until I met Jove. Over a series of steps, he taught himself to open the fridge, haul out the egg carton, close the fridge, eat the eggs, and hide the carton. He was infuriating and useless and I loved him. I can still feel his ears, and that imperial plume of a tail, and his sigh when the big-sleep drug kicked in. That was January 2004.
Rescue 2: I’d had Jove for almost three years and one evening a golden- retriever mix, maybe three months old, was dumped in the dog run. She tore around as if she’d been kept in a shoebox her whole life, wearing a chewed-up harness that she kept wriggling with like a girl wearing atoo-small bra. The run was about to close so I took her with me and started trying to find her a home. After four homes fell through, all for flukey reasons having nothing to do with her, I finally accepted that she was the second dog I never intended to have. I named her Blossom. (She’s the one who actually paddled out to fetch the branch while Jove remained ashore, barking in an authoritative fashion until she brought it within chomping range.) She adored Jove but after he died, she would not tolerate another dog in her home; she’d scrambled aboard the lifeboat and pulled the ladder up after her. She really didn’t have much use for dogs generally; she was all about the Thumbed Ones, who could not only rub her belly but also throw stuff for her to fetch—sticks, rocks, half-filled water bottles, stray lobster buoys, and most especially tennis balls. Blossom snootled out tennis balls in stored luggage, thorny hedges, sand dunes, bayou mud, three-foot snowdrifts, steaming mulch piles, house crawlspaces, apartment beyondreachspaces—any and everywhere a tennis ball existed to be snootled out. If tennis balls were twenties, I’d be running a hedge fund. Her ears were two shades darker than her coat and when she was walking she tucked them back against her neck so they looked like little birds. She was an infectiously happy creature and I loved her. She died in her sleep this past June.
__
Rescue 3: Me, of course. Without Jove and Blossom, my life would have been, would still be, so much duller and flatter. I’m looking forward to meeting the next dog the universe sends my way.
Yutsano
Obligatory PUPPEH!!
All retrievers of that sort think they’re pretty much human. Other dogs are just mild forms of amusement or not worth their while. But the do lurves their peoples!
Little Boots
they don’t appreciate you, anne, they really don’t.
Martin
Corgis don’t like water. I think the queen has bred it out of them to keep her rugs tidy.
asiangrrlMN
Awwwwwww! Both Jove and Blossom are just wonderful, beautiful dogs. My condolences on Jove. And, the last bit about you being the third rescue made me tear up (in a good way). I feel the same way about my boys.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Your
familiarskittehs are indeed your guardian angels. Mine is just the scourge of my universe. I keed I keed!MattR
My friend in high school had the most wonderful, friendly akita. He used to love to put his paws up on your shoulders and dance with you, but he would never do it without invitation (though once he danced a few times with new people he would take some liberties). Aarrggh, I need to get a house with some more room so I can actually get a bigger dog (as well as somewhere that can handle two dogs)
Jebediah
Beautiful stories, and as a bonus two grand new words – bluffoonery and snootle! I love them both, not least because my Otto is also a tennis ball snootler.
I’m sorry you had to say good-bye to your wonderful dogs – but another will come to you. That’s been our experience anyway.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: You better be kidding! And, yeah, they are. Even when they are being pains in my ass, I still love them.
Josefina, I missed the part about Blossom. I’m so sorry you had to say good-bye to her as well.
Jebediah
@MattR:
My apologies if I am telling you something you already know, but in my experience certain breeds of big dogs are just fine in small houses/apartments as long as you can get them out for a walk once or twice a day. Our Otto is an American Staffordshire, and he has been just fine in our little place with the back “yard” not much bigger than a walk-in closet.
I think this is especially so if you adopt an adult dog rather than a puppy.
We are in Southern California, though – I don’t know if this would hold true in some slushy, sleety, snowy, ice-bound hell.
Yutsano
@Jebediah: Great Danes are famous for being great city dwelling dogs. Not that they don’t appreciate a big yard mind you. But a simple walk and tons of attention seem to do them just fine.
@asiangrrlMN: She and I are playing the “I R NOT SLEEPIEZ!!” game right now. She’s too damn cute drifting off like that. It’s almost enough to make me forget the four deep scratches she gave me on my hand this weekend.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: You forgot the “Almost.” at the end. Heh. It’s definitely cute to watch a cat struggle to stay awake.
@M. Bouffant: Oh noez! Have you summoned…her?
M. Bouffant
Cudlipps?
MattR
@Jebediah: My current problem is that I live in a condo and already have a 30 lb mix of some sort. The condo board would not let me get a second dog if I wanted to. Nor do I think my Ellie could survive with any other dog in just 800 sq feet. She is way too playful and energetic around other dogs.
I am trying to get remotivated to clean up, paint things, steam clean the carpets, reorganize things to better “show the place, etc before putting the condo on the market. Then I have to hope that a) I get a decent offer and b) I can find a decent place to buy once I get an offer. I am 95% comfortable that B is not an issue if I am willing to accept living on a 50X100 lot. But I really would like to hold out for something a bit bigger that gives me some semblence of privacy, as well as a decent sized yard for Ellie (and friends) to run in.
Yutsano
@M. Bouffant: There’s a Lady Cudlipps? Will teh madness nevah end?
@asiangrrlMN: Well she had to get up to take care of a tummy grumble. And she got a little bit of my salmon from dinner tonight. But we might get back to the game here soon.
Ruckus
Josefina
Really sorry about your friends. I’m glad they could bring an extra ray of sunshine into your life for a little while. They seemed so happy as you brought some into their lives as well.
You painted such a great and vivid story with your words, it really shows how much you cared for your friends.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Adorable!
OK. I’m done. I leave you with my plan for making mad monies in the depressed economy. Night, all.
Jebediah
@MattR:
I see… well, if you are within walking distance of us, Juno would LOVE to play with your pup, even tho she is a third the size. Lately it turns out that she loves to play with dogs much bigger than her ten and a quarter pounds.
Good luck with the house selling/hunting buying!
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: A plan for us all. Just sell your soul and you too can be rich beyond the dreams of avarice!
Platonicspoof
Seconding (thirding, . . .) the love for your writing style, Josefina!
Thanks for sharing.
stuckinred
Nice!
Mary G
Dogs sharing sticks always cracks me up. Great tale.
Kristine
Love your story, and your puppehs, and thirding or fourthing about your writing style, which is very enjoyable.
bystander
Love it! Thanks for letting me know your dogs through your wonderful descriptions of them. They all leave us much too soon.
josefina
Thank you all so much for the kind words! I think people who don’t live with animals just can’t understand how bloody well you get to know them. I could’ve written pages and pages on each of them, their quirks, their habits, their fears, how they interacted (for instance, Blossom insisted on humping Jove when we got home. He allowed it, but only in the hallway, NOT outside). And they knew me too. It’s hard to lose a relationship that’s so intimate yet uncomplicated and it’s great to be able to talk about it with people who get that.
(Sorry about the horrible pixely pic of Blossom! I’m a crap techie.)
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: I haz no soul–so no problems there!
@josefina: It’s a special tribe, isn’t it? Those of us with beloved furry friends.
Celia
You write beautifully. I hope that you are in that profession, because if you are not, you ought to be. I love the line about if tennis balls were 20s, but I could go on. Thank you for an eloquent diary, and one which brought a tear to my eye when others have not as much. I helped my 14 year old rescued lab pass over this summer, and your bit about the last sigh was poignant. I’ll never forget it, and I bawled like a motherless child. I send my love to you and thank you for putting such a remarkable voice to your sorrow.