Happy New Year to everyone. In this series I’ve been sharing about some rescues that have been part of our lives.
Snoopy and Lucy were both great pets and family members. Snoopy passed away after living with us for 11 years, and Lucy was the ripe old age of 19 when she passed.
Then there was Beau, our Chesapeake/Labrador retriever. We got him from a neighbor down the road shortly before Lucy left us. Beau was a great dog, a gentle giant at 125 pounds. He loved all people and all animals. He was a porch puppy, loved outside and loved the snow. I always thought he had a bit of Husky in him, too.
One day while in town I decided to see what dogs were at the Central Aroostook Humane Society. I wasn’t a board member then, so I went in and asked if I could look at the dogs, and the girls said, “Sure.” The first one I saw was a small black dog that looked just like my Lucy. She was a terrier/dachshund mix, but this little guy had longer legs and his coat was a bit tangled but so cute. Those cloudy black eyes looked up at me and I was hooked. I couldn’t resist and brought him home.
The shelter didn’t know very much about him. He was a stray that someone had picked up and dropped off. The girls believed he was older, maybe 10 or more. He had white around the face area, his eyes were cloudy and he didn’t seem to hear very well. After the seven-day waiting period, I brought him home, and he fit right in with our cat and Beau. I named him Buddy. It seemed to fit him.
He loved to be rocked while lying on my chest. I think perhaps he may have wandered off and ended up at the shelter. Buddy was a bit chubby and was well cared for, except his fur was a bit tangled and matted. We decided to trim his coat, so we gave him a bath and got a set of clippers out and proceeded to give Buddy a haircut.
When we were clipping his fur, my husband looked at me and said, “I think we got ourselves a poo.”
Buddy was a poodle for sure. He was a great little dog. We only had him for a year, and the vet said that he was more like 14 years old. Buddy developed pancreatic cancer, and we had to make the hard decision to send him over the Rainbow Bridge. It was a sad day, but I knew that for the year we had him, we gave him a great home, lots of food, heat to keep him warm and lots of extra love. He was a special part of our family.
Not long after Buddy’s passing, my husband went up to the shelter to see if there was a dog that could be a companion for Beau. He asked me to go see a dog he picked out. She was a bit smaller than Beau, but they looked so much alike. The shelter girls said this pup looked like she was a Labrador/Husky mix and she was very sweet, loved her toys, but she was a runner. That’s why the previous owner brought her to the shelter.
Her name was Eppie. When they took her out of the pen, she had a rubber toy in her mouth. She leaned against my husband’s leg and her tail never stopped wagging. That day she became part of the Wieder household. Did she run? You bet she did, up our long driveway, across the road and straight down the road. My husband drove after her, got her in the car and brought her home.
He then took her on a walk to show her where she could run. She ran a few more times, and we tied her on a long run for maybe a month, and she never ran again. Eppie was a great dog and she and Beau got along great.
Beau was almost 13 when he started having seizures. The vet suspected it was a brain tumor, and he also had a big tumor in his stomach. It breaks your heart, but you know that at some point you must decide what is best for your pet. Beau crossed the Rainbow Bridge soon after he turned 13.
I will leave you with this verse by David Romano: “When tomorrow starts without me, don’t think that we’re apart, for every time you think of me, I’m right inside your heart.”
