National Dog Day

Long Live Dogs!

August 26th is National Dog Day. Let me tell you about my dogs.

Dinah Nicole

I had five dogs in 2021. It’s the most we’ve ever had at one time, and I didn’t plan it that way. They came to us as castaways. The first one I got at a shelter, so she wasn’t really a castaway. But, they were ready to put her down because she had a broken leg, so I did rescue her. Her owners had named her “Felony”. That kind of gives you an idea of what she was up against. She was three months old.

We named her Dinah instead of Felony. My brother called her Nicole because he said that her bedroom eyes reminded him of Anna Nicole Smith. That’s a weird thing to say, and I think he should probably try to get out more. Anyway, it’s because of her that we ended up with 5 dogs. She loved dogs and she loved people, too. She always rolled over on her back in greeting. Dinah died a few weeks ago at the age of 15. The world lost the sweetest little canine.

Deborah Anne

I found Debbie walking along my road. I picked her up and went to all the houses in the area, but no one claimed her. After putting up a “Found Dog” sign, her owner came to get her. 18 months later, the owner didn’t want her anymore, so I agreed to take her. When Debbie met Dinah, they had a vicious fight over a bag of food. It was my fault. You don’t introduce dogs in front of food. After that dicey first encounter, they never fought again. They became thick as thieves. In the remote backwoods, I watched as they hunted mice, squirrels, and birds together. Debbie is 13 and a half now and learning how to live without Dinah.

Chuey Fiona

It’s hard for me to write about Chuey. And we didn’t name her Chuey but she was so damaged that we couldn’t bear to change her name. Chuey was found “walking the streets of Texas”. Now Texas is not a small town so when you say walking the streets what does that even mean? Anyway, she was brought back to Florida. My friend was downsizing from a trailer to a minivan and had to give up one of her two dogs and Chuey was not the favorite. So I said okay, I’ll take her.

Chuey didn’t like to walk or didn’t know how to walk. I mean she always stayed up with the truck when I took everybody for a walk. She never joined us no matter how hard I tried. If there was a leaf blowing by on the road, she froze and stared at it. She was literally paralyzed by fear. It took years for her to relax. She never had dog friends. They avoided her. She didn’t know how to socialize.

Once in a while, she came along on a short walk I called “Chuey’s Loop”. That was also where I had seen foxes. I suspect Chuey was looking for a secret rendezvous with a fox because she was precisely the color of a red fox. She may have been part fox.

Not One Bark

Chuey never barked. My friend who gave her to me also never heard her bark. This is so abnormal for a dog. It upset us. We had Chuey for 10 years, and she never barked. We never knew how old she really was. I used to say that Chuey was a woman without a past. And that Chuey had secrets we would never know. But at least she had us for a while. She died on February 25, 2022, with people who loved her.

Marcus Julius Goofus

I found Marcus early one morning sitting underneath a Stop sign in a remote, undeveloped development. The night before, the temperature had gone down to 17F. He was freezing to death. And judging by the bones making a tent of his skin, he was starving to death. As soon as I saw him, I picked Debbie up and told the girls, “No walk today”. He body wagged his way over to me, and then I knew he was friendly. He jumped in the bed of the truck, and we drove home. As soon as I let him out of the truck, he ran off down the road the way we had come. I stared after him and said, “Easy come easy go”. About a minute later, he came running back.

It was Thursday when we met. He had his baby teeth. On Monday, when he went to see the doctor, he had adult teeth. That can happen. So he was approximately 6 months old. A year later, I met someone who recognized Marcus. They told me he had a brother. Their owner left town, letting two donkeys and the two dogs loose to fend for themselves. Nobody knows what happened to his brother. That’s about the cruelest thing you can do to an animal – abandonment.

Gone Too Soon

Marcus was a calm, gentle dog who loved to sit under trees waiting for squirrels to drop like ripened fruit. He goofed around a lot and slipped into the pool I don’t know how many times. He would crawl inside dog food bags. When he played, his eyes got all wide and shiny and his tongue hung out of his mouth. So we called him a Goofus. We think he was a Stephen’s Cur. I named him Marcus because I was reading a book about Marcus Luttrell called Lone Survivor when I took him home. One night in February, I found him dead underneath the gigantic Camellia Bush. He was only 6 years old.

Maximus “Moose Dog”

Max was thrown from a moving truck into the bushes on a city street. The mailman who witnessed this cruel treatment of an innocent animal retrieved him and brought him to our office, where his wife worked. My husband looked at him and said, “Has anyone claimed him?” Someone said they were wishing that he would. So he did. When he called me, I said, “I need another dog like I need a hole in the head.”

When I saw this 6-week-old pup with his extended belly full of worms and heard how he was thrown away like trash, what do you think I did? Yep, he was home.

Max does not like dogs. He doesn’t even like people very much. He is affectionate with me, though. I suppose it’s because I feed him, and I am part of his territory. Max has survived a beating with a branch and being shot at. And don’t forget, he was thrown out of a truck. I call him Old Man because I hope that someday he will get to be an old man. I don’t know what I’d do without him. If only he would mellow out a little. Max is a Catahoula Cur, and he is four years old.

One More Thing About a Dog

Don’t forget to look into your dog’s eyes and tell them that you love them. They understand that.