Posted on 08/18/2009 9:19:41 AM PDT by Timeout
Unqualified love, I know it well. Where else can you get that on this earth?
Thanks.
snopes is a hoax on the truth.
Darn misty screens ...
Thats what you call a good boy right there.
A little Wiemaraner mix pup, about 6 months old I guess, followed me, my Lab and Ridgeback home three weeks ago. His ribs were sticking out, he was so dehydrated a skin fold just stuck up, he has mange and was covered with ant bites. $200 bucks at the vet and a bag of puppy chow and he’s gained 5 and half pounds. Well I really didn’t need another dog. Wouldn’t have chosen one 6 months old already anyway, certainly not one with mange, non contagious kind but that is hard to get rid of. My male Ridgeback just goes to his cage to get away from the puppy play but the Lab bitch is teaching him some manners. He’s peed in the house twice, thrown up after both vet visits, comes about half the time when he’s outside off the leash. He’s getting to know the neighbors in my dog friendly cul de sac, all who think he’s cute as a button. He likes to curl up with me in my reading chair and sleeps in his training cage only making noise when he needs to go out. 1:30AM and 4:30 AM give or take a martini, me not him. His name is Rebel. I don’t have a clue who his former owner is. Hopefully it’s not a similar situation to this post. But in this economy the rescue kennels and pounds are over taxed. I couldn’t take a chance on him receiving Obama care, what with his pre existing conditions so what you going to do?
After I got out of the service, I got my first German Shepherd - Kaiser. It was him and me for thirteen years. Then I got married and for a while we had no dogs. Then we moved to the country and, primarily because I was away a lot, my wife wanted a dog. I still remembered the pain of losing Kaiser and resisted – briefly.
We went to the Providence sheter and Sandy immediately saw a Golden Retriever puppy. On the way into the parking lot of the shelter, I’d noticed what appeared to be a full grown German Shepherd in one of the kennels out back. While my wife began the arrangements to adopt the Golden, I walked out back to “just take a look”. Long story short, we took them both home. Named them “Druck” (Shepherd) and Zeil (Golden) a couple of German words of vague meaning but related. They both lived to be almost fourteeen. Druck was a couple of years older so she went first in 2001, Zeil in 2003. After Zeil died, I told my wife, “I can’t do this again.”
We’ve since moved to Florida. Over the years, Sandy had hinted at maybe getting another dog but being selfish and cowardly, I resisted. As time passed, I suggested that if we did, I’d like to adopt an older German Shepherd – one that maybe had lost its human(s) and needed a few more good years.
A couple of years ago we became acquainted with a woman who was about to become the Animal Care Director at the Sarasota Humane Society. She, of course, said we really should think about adopting. I told her that, if we did, I wanted it to be an older German Shepherd.
My bluff got called. She called and we went down and neither of us could resist this beautiful, majestic 11 year old dog that was a lot German Shepherd and something else. To us he looks like he’s got Norwegian Elkhound in him. He’s huge and warm and as laid back as they come and as receptive to affection as any dog I’ve ever known or seen, an utter joy to have around.
His name is Tank. It’s probably not a name we would have given him but no way were we going to try to change it at that point and throw that curve at a dog who’d presumably been called that for 11 years. He’s not the Tank in the story and we don’t know how he got that name. I always thought it was because he’s a burly sort of guy. But I’ll never call him or hug him or play with him or even just say his name again without thinking of this story.
“snopes is a hoax on the truth.”
I don’t buy snopes 100%, but the lack of the matching name, or any of the medal winners having no family, not to mention that the email has had two different life spans; definitely tends to suggest the story is fiction.
Good story just the same.
Thank you for posting......
Thanks for sharing your dog stories.
They truly are a blessing.
Great story. Losing my Duke, a Great Dane I had for almost 12 years, was one of the toughest periods of my life. I felt as you did, but now I have two great little girls to love me and my wife. :)
Agreed. Oh. I still miss Kaiser. Not all sappy and morbid about it but the memory is still there. Druck and Zeil, too. And Tank’s not going to be any easier to take either. But I wouldn’t change any of it.
Good for you! We got a young cat in a similar manner last winter.
Because I'm in a hunting club, I know a ton of hunting Labs (the blind retrieve signals - back, angle back, over - which is fairly advanced work, indicate a hunting Lab). They're just happy boys and girls, perennial optimists and affection sponges. My older Chocolate will work her birds for ANYBODY, even a six year old kid, and circulates among the crowd trolling for pats and the occasional treat. Even my young field bred girl who is not a schmoozer will kiss anybody who'll hold still long enough.
If something were ever to happen to me, Shelley and Ruby would adapt to whatever person they wound up with, and would love them just as much and work just as hard. That's just the way Labs are. Give them food and affection and a job to do, they will be happy. Thank goodness -- I don't have to worry about them wasting away like The Dog At His Master's Grave.
My young Black has the heart of a rabbit (except where ducks are concerned) but she will (somewhat) bravely follow behind the Chocolate and bark at whatever she's barking at.
Dang, my CAT brought home a rabbit the other night.
Unfortunately, she somehow dragged it through her little cat door in the middle of the night. I discovered it when I stepped on it first thing in the morning.
How pleasant!
It helps if you wear bedroom slippers, but after taking gut-shot mallards out of the mouths of Labs for years, I seem to be immune to the yuck factor.
My parents had a Siamese cat who stalked, killed, and retrieved for my father an entire nest of baby rabbits . . . during a law firm cocktail party! He tried locking her up, she got out and brought him the rest of them.
Unfortunately, I think this was our neighborhood’s only rabbit.
She brings me regular gifts: birds, lizards, and there’s some kind of crawly thing she brings in all the time...I don’t even know what it is.
But she’s so purr-ty! And she climbs in my lap wanting me to cradle her like a baby. So she gets a pass.
One of our dogs caught a neighborhood rabbit. Several have already moved into the vacated territory.
Our little Siamese is strictly an Indoor Cat and doesn't get the opportunity to hunt anything but cockroaches and crickets.
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