Day 112
Until recently I had six animals. Quite a LOT for one person.
I have two pugs, Dori (14) and Gertie (7). Dori is one of the two old ladies I flunked fostering almost 4 years ago. Flunked in the sense that they were to be with me for an afternoon and well … here we are.
Yoshi was the other pug I rescued on that day. She was the one whose little body started shutting down the day I left Denver and before we made it to the highway I had to have her put to sleep. She had turned 14 a week earlier. She had made it longer than I ever expected. She had a stroke a few years back and had lost use of her legs some time ago but was still a gentle, loving, and sweet little creature.
Both of these little dogs had special needs. Dori is deaf and pretty much blind. Her head is permanently tilted (from abuse, we suspect) and she has some neurological issues. She is needy. And clingy. And has severe separation anxiety. And she is as sweet as pie. And my shadow. And somehow she always knows when there is a “bad guy” or cow on TV as she can go from sound asleep to barking and growling at the set! For a deaf and blind dog – how can that be?
Then there’s Mobes … my 11+ year old (mother of 30 – before we rescued her) big, counter-surfing, cream-colored field lab … and the sweetest, most pleasant dog on the planet. She can do a full body wag and a mean impersonation of The Big Bad Wolf and she loves my singing. I think she is tone-deaf … or maybe just really polite! She hardly left Tim’s side when he was so sick. I had to practically drag her out some nights and when she went back inside it was immediately up the stairs to him. Before his passing she sat or slept next to him, knowing her body was too heavy on his; right after he died, she crawled onto the bed and laid across his body. That simple sweet act of devotion broke my heart all over again.
When I came back to the car after putting Yoshi to sleep all the animals were waiting for me … probably wondering where their little pal was. Oscar (our 18 pound brown/black 12 year old tabby) was her “boyfriend”. He’d sit out with her while she soaked up sunshine and sat next to her in the dark guarding her from coyotes when I took her out at night. It didn’t matter that I was there the whole time, too … he was devoted to her. He is a strange one who doesn’t like any displays of aggression (spanks the dogs’ butts if they are tussling) or emotion from others (has been known to smack me if I’m crying) – yet he is sweet and cuddly and quite the hugger. When I came back to the car, a slobbering mess, I thought he might swat me because I was crying but instead it was he who put his little paw on my shoulder and mewed in my ear. I want to think he knew something was going on with his little buddy and he was telling me it was okay.
And then there’s Henry … my silver tabby with the baby blue eyes that hardly anyone knows I have because he has been so quiet and elusive all these (almost) 20 years! Since moving he has taken over this new house. He’s sleeping on the couch (not giving one care to Gertie who would just as soon eat him as her breakfast!), he’s up in my office nuzzling on me giving me welts on a daily basis (I’m so allergic!), he’s made a cozy bed out of a cubby in the stairway, he’s sitting in my lap. He’s all over the place!
And then there’s Gertie … the wonder dog … who will go from porker pug to a svelte little thing in no time from running back and forth along the front fence as she barks at everyone and everything that passes by or flies by or floats by! She is ridiculous … and hilariously funny, horribly jealous and 100% devoted to me. Well, devoted to me and Liver Pops!
People ask how I can have so many animals … with animals such as these … how can I not?