I brought a dog home from the pound 2 days before Christmas in 1995 to "surprise" my newlywed husband when I was 6 months pregnant with #1. He wanted a beagle and I was told over the phone that the animal rescue shelter had a 1-year old female beagle. I drove down quickly and looked in every cage for a beagle. Disappointed, I walked out and asked the lady at the desk "did the beagle get adopted?". She said no, and took me back in and pointed to a hyena-looking animal sitting quietly in a cage full of big barking dogs.
It was love at first sight. At least for me. And, her.
I brought her home to The Husband who was not very delighted to have a mangy mutt added to our family (along with the already hyper purebred demon beagle I had bought him for Father's Day ....are you seeing a disturbing pattern of "animal gifting" here??). As we gave her a bath I was upset to see that she had "tumors" all over her body, but much to my horror they were huge ticks that had apparently been hanging out for quite some time.
"That's it....she's going back", said The Husband. But, we couldn't stand the thought of her being covered in ticks, so she sat absolutely still while we picked them off of her for an hour. During that hour we fell in love with her and named her Dixie.
Dixie moved up north with us (we sold the demon beagle and that is a hilarious post in itself) and we had her until #3 was born and we outgrew our house. Now, Dixie had issues. She had problems with her anal glands and would scoot around the house trying to relieve the pressure (and it stunk like you wouldn't believe). She also had to have salivary glands removed in a surgical procedure (she was the 6 million dollar mutt). But, when we decided to move to a neighborhood with neighbors very close we decided her barking would have us voted "neighbors most likely to have their house egged on Halloween" or worse, so we gave D-Dog (my nickname for her) to my mom. And, everyone was happy. We got to visit her and she was spoiled rotten with meals out of the Crockpot and lots of attention. And, I no longer had to worry about her eating the poopy diapers out of the trash can. And, please remember I was a mess trying to adjust to life with 3 kids (age 5 and under) and 2 Subway restaurants. Dixie was definitely better off with my mom and her husband!
Well, Dixie got old as animals do and last night she had to be put to sleep. It was so sad, but she had begun to have blood in her urine and she stopped eating. We think she was just shy of 14 and as hard as it was for my mom, she didn't want her to suffer. But, that sweet dog melted the heart of everyone she came in contact with and I'll never forget her.
And, in case you're wondering, I did not get anything living and breathing for The Husband's birthday that year. At least I don't remember that I did! I did get a baby 3 days before my birthday, though!
3 comments:
That was sweet. I can relate. We never got full blooded registered dogs. They were always rescue dogs who cost our family more money than ever repairing the damage of their previous owners but it was always so worth it. We all cried when they had to be put to sleep.
We have a dog named Theo that we rescued from the Humane Society... he is part pit bull, part jack Russell. We have had him for 5 years and now he mostly lives with my parents because 1. They love him and request visitation rights. 2. He plays with their dog Moses and they are best friends so when we take him home he cries for his "real family" 3. and as awful as this sounds... I just don't want to take care of him anymore because having a 1 1/2 year old and a baby due in May is enough for me.
No dog story here. But I had to read that last paragraph two or three times: I thought you said that you got a baby three days before your birthday THIS year. I was like, "What? I must have missed more than Monday and Tuesday's posts!" and "OMIGOSH! Is she serious?" till I read it again. And again just to be sure. :)
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