I grew up with dogs. Dogs have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My father is the same way and I would guess that has a lot to do with why I am the way I am. He always talked about all the dogs he had and we always had one. Thee dogs to be exact. The first dog I can remember was my father’s German Shorthaired Pointer, Holly. Memories of her are pretty fuzzy but I remember her being around. After her we had Heidi, another German Shorthaired Pointer. Then there was Lady, the Golden Retriever my father bought. Supposedly for my mom but now that I’m older and knowing him and how I am, I’m pretty sure he just wanted another dog around. As a typical kid I liked having them around even though I may not have done a whole lot with them. They were family pets.
My father hunted with his German Shorthaired Pointers. They weren’t trained and looking back didn’t hunt all that well. I remember Heidi being a wild thing. She was completely nuts. We had Lady, the Golden, at the same time as Heidi and we would take her out hunting with us as well. She was gun shy though. As soon as the guns came out she’d be hiding. The joke was that the Lady was a better pointer (really just flushing the birds) and Heidi was a better retriever. You would shoot and Lady would take off and Heidi would appear from somewhere over in the next county where she was zooming around. Found memories of those dogs though.
As an adult I’ve had four dogs. Still have three of those dogs as I write this. Roxie was my first. A Rottweiler and German Shepherd mix I got from the shelter. Got her back in my single days. She was a pretty cool dog. Just a dog to hang out with and man did I love that dog. Unfortunately over the years she developed some serious medical conditions that were too much for me and my wife. Thankfully we found a vet that adopted her from us and as far as I know had a pretty good life. Many of your can understand just how hard that was. Letting go of her was really hard. She was like a kid to us, part of the family. Plus I felt like a failure. A failure as a dog owner to be able to provide for my dog.
Early in our marriage my wife and I had added Casey, a monster of a Chocolate Lab, to the family. She’s still with us and will be 12 next year. She’s my wife’s favorite. Has been there most of our marriage and has been my wife’s snuggle buddy through a lot of deployments and other time away. Later came my buddy Lily, a Silver Lab, and shortly thereafter we adopted Keyliegh, a 5 year old Charcoal Lab. That dog just loves to sleep and if she can get away with it, lay on top of you using you as her own personal body pillow. Kinda rough when you account for the fact that she is 85 pounds. Lily we got as a puppy and then sent off to gun dog training when she was 6 months old for 8 months.
Lily is such a special dog to me. She is truly my buddy and I love that little 60 pound rocket ship of wild neurotic energy. It was hard to send her off to training for so long. Fortunately it was local and when I was around I spent as much time at the trainer with her. I was being trained just as much as she was. In the end I cannot imagine not doing it all over again. The time and money invested into her was worth every bit. She is such a remarkable dog. All she ever wants to do is work and she would work until her little dog heart exploded if you didn’t stop her. When she isn’t wanting to do that she wants to be a lap dog. I swear she practically tries to crawl inside you! She may drive me insane sometimes but I can’t tell you how much I love that dog.
Lily is going to turn 5 this coming year. That’s 5 years of being taught what the friendship of a dog like her is. Yes as I said I’ve been surrounded by dogs my entire life and I have special memories of all of them. Lily is something special though. Part of it is just her and her own special dog personality. The other part though I believe is the bond that we have built over the years through the training she and I received and continue to develop. Time spent in a duck blind or out working some pheasants, unsuccessfully, at my father’s place. Even long road trips with her on the passenger seat, I’m quite sure she was saying “are we there yet” the whole way. It’s the combination of individual personality and the bond we’ve built that makes the relationship we have so special.
I know there will come a day that I have to same goodbye to her. As I type these words my vision blurs just thinking of that day. I can only hope that the day I have to do that is many years from now. But her memory will be a memory I will forever hold dear. For she hasn’t just been my buddy, she’s been a teacher. She has taught me about all the things I’ve done wrong in the past as a dog owner. About all the missed opportunities to have the same relationship I have with Lily with many other dogs in my life. There will be many other dogs in the future I’m sure. We are “dog” people. I can only hope I am lucky enough to be given the chance to learn from another amazing dog like Lily. Until then I am just going to keep enjoying every moment I can with the Lily and the other 2 monsters who we collectively refer to as the 3 stooges.
Before we moved onto the farm we were cleaning up around the house. I needed something from the store and took off in the car. Heidi unbeknownst to me followed me down the driveway and out into the road. A truck ran over her and kept going. You and Pa-Pa went down and got her. When I came back we took her to the vet. The vet said she had a broken pelvic and to keep her in her kennel and she would heal. she did heal and you would never know she had been hurt. I could emphasis with her pain and recovery having been through it myself. She passed away at 12 and is buried just outside the kitchen door.
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