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Crazy as a Loom

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Dogs I have known.

myeddie

It's a long list, beginning with a dog named Chip that my parents had when I was a toddler. I don't remember him, but my mother says that he went to Florida with us, when my father decided to look for work there. We all packed into a tiny trailer the size of my present day bathroom.

Then there was Mike, and Ike (my mother was an Eisenhower fan). Ike was half poodle and half hound. My father brought him and his 7 siblings home with him, after hearing that they were going to be destroyed. I remember him opening the door of his truck, and them all tumbling out. Ike was possibly the strangest looking dog I have ever seen.

Old Mike went down the road and impregnated a neighbor's dog, and that is how I got my puppy, that I called Hoby. I taught him to 'heel', and I taught him so well, that the back of my leg was always wet, from him drooling down it, because he walked so close. I also taught him to jump through hula hoops, back when they were the rage. He was named after Hoby Gilman, a bounty hunter sitcom on TV. I'm aging myself with both of those comments.

Then there was Beau, an Irish setter, the dumbest dog I ever had the pleasure to own. He was always running off, and he would get in the car with anyone. Sometimes he would wander right back by the house, and he wouldn't even recognise where he was. He would waltz right on by.

There was a stray Newfoundland in Maine, that I named Gonzo, after I paid for him to have surgery on his broken hip. He slept in the back seat all the way back to New York, and he only got up once to eat hamburgers from McDonald's, and once to find a handy tree.

And Zoe, a sweet border collie who liked to bite tires and pants legs. She never got over not having a herd of sheep to chase down.

And Joby, a golden retriever that came with the house I bought.
And Taffy, another golden, whose owners were retiring to Florida, and couldn't take her.

Then there was Chickiwu, my little pit bull. The sweetest girl of all. The dog you wait all your life for. She ran like the wind, and jumped every fence ever put up. She was mine the minute she walked through the door. We were inseparable.
One night, long after she was gone, I dreamt I opened the closet door, and she was there.
And I said, "Chicki. I've been looking all over for you."

But this is Eddie, my Eddie, and he is the sweetest boy I know. He is the swimming (and diving) dog. He is 'spagetti Eddie'. He is Edhead. He is 'buddy boy', and a dozen other terms of endearment.
I joke that Bill and I will have to get counseling when he is gone. But it isn't' all that far from the truth.

I know that at 12 and 1/2, Eddie won't be with us forever. And I can't (won't) think about what that will be like. I am too afraid I already know.
But somewhere, there will be another homeless little pit bull, with my name on him, and Eddie's.
There will always be more dogs.
I don't think I would know how to live without one.

8 comments:

Gail said...

Aren't they wonderful? You have been very lucky to have so many good dogs. I believe dogs make us more gentle.

Hilary said...

That is a long list of canine critters. Each and every one of them lucky to have had someone who loved, protected and understood them.

I think I would have loved dear, clueless Beau. I have a cat like that. :) Thanks for sharing your pooches.

Need A Latte Mom said...

Dogs are the BEST! My husband and I chuckled at the comment about the Irish Setter, cannot tell you how many times we will refer to how they bred the brains right out of them.
It is nice to see that Eddie is in his proper place, the sofa!

Anonymous said...

Dogs are endearing and they ask nothing of us other than a warm bed, a meal and a few scritches on the head. We talk to ours all the time.

Di
The Blue Ridge Gal

KarenInTheWoods said...

What a trip down your doggie memory lane. Thank you for taking us along! My eyes teared up at you finding Chicki in the closet in your dreams. I meet with my Akasha in my dreams a lot too. She is waiting for me at the Rainbow Bridge, as is your Chicki.

(Akasha is the only dog that I had creamated and have her ashes here in a tin on a shelf. She will be scattered along with my own ashes someday on a little island on a lake in the UP of Michigan)

Her nickame was
KASHA-BURGER-DIP-DOG-YOYOHEAD-SPAGHETTI-BRAIN!

Theresa said...

Amen,
They are all special aren't they? Eddie looks like he's wintering well, but when the time comes in the very far future, he'll have great company to swap Hilary stories with.

Anonymous said...

I strive to the be person my dog thinks I am.

Sharon said...

They give so much to us and ask for so little back. I'm a little on dog-paws overload today as 12 paws track in mud from the snow melt. I have a mop.

Welcome to my world.

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