From commentor GrammyPat:
April, 2010: … I give you Li’l Buddy. The first pic is of him four years ago (in all of his patient, 13 yr old, unflappable glory) with my granddaughter, the second is recent. He was not always so encumbered, but he has always been this sweet and tolerant. While he’s still with me, I want to honor his contributions to my flawed existence…although I still haven’t figured out exactly who was rescued by whom.
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Sixteen years ago, soon after losing my 18yr old Sammy dog to a car, I saw what looked like a black dust mop wandering (and totally oblivious to everything beyond the end of his nose) in the middle of the street in my native northern Kentucky. I was in the process of relocating to a ranch in the desert of southern New Mexico and the last thing that I needed was a little fru-fru dog. But there he was…and I wasn’t going to let someone find their baby like I had found my Sammy. I picked him up, spent the next two weeks making calls, putting up signs, taking him to every vet in the area, running ads…all to no avail. I was reluctant to give him a name and get attached to him because I truly expected someone to claim him so I’d just say “Come on, little buddy” whenever I had to run errands while preparing for the big move. When moving day came and no one had claimed him, I couldn’t just abandon him. So I loaded the 1yr old, 12 lb, poodle-lhasa apso mix into the moving van and off we went on our big adventure across the country. The nickname became his official name but he’s been called a lot of other things over the years: Pun’kin, Stinky, Damn-You-Dog, Sweetie Pete, and Old Man, among others.
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At that time, and ever since, he has taken everything in stride. He is the most stoic, big-hearted, good-natured, and even-tempered animal that I’ve ever encountered. His philosophy in life is, “If it doesn’t involve Food…it ain’t worth gettin’ excited about.” (Now that I think about it…That’s not a bad philosophy for all of us.) He gets along with everybody and everything…especially if the encounter involves Food. Feed him and he’ll be your “best friend in the whole, wide world” but then completely ignore you if/when the Food runs out. Over his long life, he has had a bite of everything that I’ve eaten…including fruits and vegetables. He has joyfully eaten raw broccoli and celery, sauerkraut, jalapenos, bananas, grapefruit, pickles, and would do back flips for strawberries.
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He attracts admirers wherever we go… Over the years I’ve had neighbors from the age of 4 to 84 knock on my door(s) to ask, “Can Buddy come out and play?” After meeting him, business associates on phone calls from around the country have inquired about him before asking about me or getting to the reason for the call. He has traveled with me without a whiff of anxiety regardless of the situation, mode, or locale. He’s accumulated more air miles than most people and would sit, holding up the security line while I got checked, until I called him to walk thru the scanner by himself. After getting a “pat-down” from TSA because his collar invariably set off the sensors, he would calmly climb back into his carry-on bag for the flight. If “Food” was his favorite word, then “Go” was a close second. Go…any where, any way, any time…it was all good.
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I’m sure you’re wondering about the contraption that he’s wearing in the second pic.
Early Morning Open Thread: Travelling BuddyPost + Comments (40)