The Love Of My Dogs, Trixie, Princess, And More
Posted: Wednesday, November 21, 2007
by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html
The depth of my love of dogs is almost unimaginable. And my life has been filled with them, although they furnish you with lots of heartaches, inadvertently, as well as pleasure. At the beginning of my memories, probably 1932 or 1933, we had a small feist dog, Trixie. When I say small, she was short legged and short bodied, but pretty heavy. Short hair, mostly white with a black tip on her tail, black left ear and a crooked partial black saddle spot. She was a good little dog and I loved her more than any teddy bear I had. She must have recognized that, because she tolerated me to begin with and loved me when I grew enough not to harass her. She lived inside with us and had pretty much free run. She had learned to push open the screen doors to go out and even to pull it open with a foot to be able to get her head in and wedge back inside alone. She had to notify us during the winter however, but she knew exactly how to do that. A single yap while standing with her nose at the opening edge of the door was her signal to go out. Scratching on the door from outside and eventually a yap or two to get our attention to come back in.
There was some type of health problem here in the south during the early 30s that hit numerous dogs. Not only had rabies started to be a huge problem, but most outdoor dogs, hounds, etc. from about 6 months of age to perhaps one year and 6 months, would have an occasional fit or some type of seizure. Unlike the seizures from epilepsy as some dogs now experience. There were two types of those fits. One kind would simply cause the dog to fall over quivering with his legs outstretched, tongue hanging out of their mouth and groans which sounded as if in severe pain, at least to a 4 year old as I was. This would last for perhaps 3 or 4 minutes and then the dog would seemingly relax and just lay there for several minutes. The other type was similar, but preceded by the dog running here and there about the yard barking and howling for a short period of time and then would fall down and act similarly to the other type fit. When I would see one happening, I wanted desperately to go grab the dog and hold it and pet it, but my mother would not let me go near it. I've never felt so sorry for an animal as those, I don't believe.
The story of Princess. I had started to high school, probably 14 years old. Each day our school bus would pass an old, small farm house where an elderly couple lived. They were quite old and neither were able to do much more than hobble in and out of the house. They owned a large beautiful German Shepherd dog which lay on their front porch. She was laying there morning and afternoon each day when we passed. I will never forget how badly I wanted that dog. Kids who lived near and who rode our bus told me her name was Princess. Anyway, one day we passed and all the porch furniture was gone. The place looked deserted. A week or so passed and no sign of the old couple. But during this time, Princess was still laying in her regular spot near the door. I inquired of the kids who lived near and they told me that couples son had come and moved them to his home or somewhere. And when I asked them if they were not going to take the dog, they only could say they did not know. I could not believe that anyone could just abandon such a dog, or any dog for that matter. I wondered how she was being fed and watered. But in a country setting such as it was, water would be no problem and leftover food was often thrown out by neighbors to be eaten by birds, chickens, etc. But each day that we went by the house, I could not keep my eyes off that dog for worry about her. I made up my mind that, if a full month or more passed without finding out anything different, I would get that dog. And so it did.
Back in those times, truancy was looked upon very lightly and virtually never punished. Unless it appeared a student had dropped out of school under 16 years of age. Also, there were no school lunch rooms. So we had to carry our lunches to school. One morning, I asked the school bus driver to stop and let me off at the house where Princess was. I had brought a strong piece of cord with me. The only thing, I was not sure if Princess would be as receptive to me as I was to her. So I asked the driver to wait one minute on me. So I approached the front porch and as I approached, Princess, who had been laying with her head on her front legs, raised her head and looked at me. When I spoke softly to her, "Princess", she stood up and wagged her tail so I knew there would be no problem with her. I motioned the bus driver to go on and he did. I fed Princess my three homemade biscuits with fried pork in two of them and peanut butter and jelly in the other. She nearly swallowed them whole. She had a collar on and I tied the cord to her collar, then led her away. It was a 3 and mile walk to my home and when we arrived my mother wasn't too happy with the situation. But she had to acknowledge that Princess was a magnificent animal and she agreed for me to keep her. I decided to keep her tied for a couple of days so she would know that we wanted her there and realize that we were going to feed her and care for her.
I went on to school for the two days and Princess seemed mighty happy to have a home. So, when I came home the second afternoon, I released Princess and the two of us strolled around the farm. The next morning, when I went out before going to school, I didn't see Princess anywhere. It concerned me but I reasoned that she may be out browsing around. So I got on the bus hoping to see her in the afternoon. But as we approached the farm house where she had lived, there she lay on the front porch, same place, with her head laid on her front legs as always before. I told the bus driver, Stop the bus. He stopped and let me off and the exact same procedure was carried out this day as it had been done 3 days earlier. Only this time I had no cord so I had to tug at her collar to get her to come with me but soon she started trotting along and we went back to my home. I again tied her for a couple of days.
Two days later, I again turned her loose hoping shed stay this time and had decided if she went home again, I'd simply let her stay. She was an old dog already and had been with those people probably since a puppy. It is difficult to remove the love and loyalty from a dog as long as they have hope of a reunion with the family they love. And sure enough, the next morning she was gone. As I got on the bus, I knew she would be back at their home but I was determined to live with that. As we passed by, there she was, but this time she raised her head as we past and looked our way. Thats all. A few days later, on a Saturday morning, I went outside to stroll around in the early dawn, a habit I had gotten into. I walked across the yard and across the road, and just as I was about to step across the ditch into a field, I glanced down the road and I could see something coming around the curve in the distance. It was unclear in the fading twilight but I stood and watched as it approached. As it drew nearer, I thought, that looks like Princess! And lo, it was and as she drew near, her tail wagging she held her head low with the sheepish smiley look of submission as though she was saying, "May I come back?" Man, I grabbed and hugged her and she licked me. We had a great hugging/licking big time. I don't remember crying, but I must have because I can hardly hold back the tears now as I remember it. I'm sure she did not stop loving the old couple but I suppose she finally gave up hope that they would return for her. So we enjoyed the love and companionship of this beautiful animal for several years and she never went back to her old home. But far too soon, she grew so old and got to the point she could not walk or even stand. So, once again I had to say goodbye to a wonderful creature.
There have been times when I felt so bad about losing my dogs that I was hesitant to ever get another, but I just couldn't pass up the opportunities that came my way. I spent 2 years in the army during the Korean conflict and of course, I was dogless during that time, and there have been times when we have had to move from one place to another in my career, when I was unable to have a dog(s). But throughout life, when possible I have owned dogs and I've loved them every one. But somehow, those dogs of my youth seem dearer than all. I now own a registered Rat Terrier, which breed is not very old, but would have been called a feist. I also own an unregistered Yorkshire Terrier. Both are males and I always liked females better but these two love me, so what can I say except that I love them both. They are about my age in their dog years, so its kindly a toss up as to what the future holds for us. Corky (the Yorkshire) is in worse shape. He is blind in one eye, has very few teeth and they are worn out. I have to shave up any hard food for him. Mitch (the Rat Terrier) thinks he is still young but he is not. He will still chase a stick (or his rubber bone) as long as you'll throw it. But I don't allow anyone to throw it much. I fear he might have a stroke or heart attack.
Many dogs have been heroes, many have been a blessing to so many people. I read a quote a long time ago, but cannot remember the author. I do remember the quote: None of Gods creatures, save the dog, has made an alliance with man. I will always believe that God gave us dogs as an example of how we ought to be. Loving and devoted to those who deserve it, loyal to infinity, forgiving, and about anything else that you can think of that is good. I realize that men have bred bad traits into some and others have been trained to do bad things, but their natural instinct is to be good, obedient and loving towards man. Your looks don't matter, your color doesn't matter, your religion doesn't matter, even if you are a sodden alcoholic, that is fine, if you kick them, all you have to do is speak softly and pat them on the head and all is forgiven. What a wonderful world if we were all German Shepherds.
This Article has been viewed 403 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.