Man's Best Friend

That is all I have to say and immediately most people think of a dog. Why is that? Why is it we think of a dog as man's best friend? Surely most men have other friends then a dog. They have friends they play, watch or discuss sports with. Friends they work with. Friends they hand out with. Even friends they share deep feelings, thoughts and fears with. But the title of "man's best friend" is unanimously claimed by a dog. His dog. The man's dog. You know dogs were not always domestic. They were wild. But the dogs and man both learned how to help each other out. They developed a symbiotic relationship. The dogs provided security and assistance in hunting and the man provided shelter and steady meals. Out of this, somewhere along the time line, they developed a fondness for each other. The dog accepts the man as he is with out question or judgement and the man does the same. Both the man and dog teach each other how to get their needs fulfilled. Both learn how to entertain and be entertained by the other.

I recently had to have one of my dogs put to sleep. Dori, a beagle with one ear shorter then the other, was suffering from kidney failure. I did not have the money to pay for expensive treatment or surgery so in order to stop her suffering, I had her put to sleep.

Dori came to me by way of my son and his x-wife. When he and his x divorced she was planning on sending Dori to one home and Oscar, a chocolate lab that grew up with Dori, to another home. Neither dog would be with a family they new. Both dogs had already spent much of their time in kennels in order to keep them from chewing up and messing up the home. Oh, and the reason Dori had one ear shorter then the other was due to a wolf/dog next door that got a hold of her ear through an opening in the fence and chewed it off. It took some time before I could get her to let me rub her ears. At any rate, I felt the dogs had been through enough and even though we already had two dogs of our own, we took the two dogs in. They loved being at our house. We have a nice size back yard and a dogie door so they can come in and out as they please. Even though we also took possession of the kennels, we never put the dogs in them. Dori loved chasing a laser light back and forth from the bedroom to the living room. Each time she would get to the light, she would lift up her head and howl as though she was announcing she had caught the light and everyone was now safe. She had a favorite itch on her lower back just above her back legs. If you put your hand down to pet her on the head she would immediately step forward until your hand would be on her lower back. Scratching her there would cause one or both of her back legs to start jumping or sometimes just go completely limp. And if you stopped before she was ready, she would turn her head and look back with an question of "that's IT??????" She also loved going for rides in my truck. If I was driving less then 45 mph, she would have her head out the window catching the breeze in her 1 and 1/2 ears.

I often felt that she and Snoopy had a lot in common. Dori liked being on the top of the back of the couch. Snoopy spent a lot of his time on top of the dog house. Dori always slept under the covers at night. Snoopy was always stealing Linus's blanket away from him. Dori would sometimes sit on the back of the couch, lower her head and just stare at you or some other unsuspecting person. Snoopy would sometime pretend he was a vulture sitting on top of his dog house waiting for another victim to fall. When I would change clothes in the evening, I would take my dirty clothes to the utility room, which just happen to be where we kept the pig's ears. Dori and Oscar (the chocolate lab) would go crazy as soon as I turned off my bath room light and picked up my clothes to head for the utility room. Dori would be on my bed and start barking. Oscar would be jumping up and down on all fours at the same time. I would say "Let's go" and both would run to the utility room, barking and jumping. I would put my clothes in the hamper and get out two pig's ears. As soon as each got their ear to chew on, they would run back to my bed room to devour it. OK, Snoopy never did any of that but it was still funny. Be sure you click on the picture to get a short video.

But now Dori is gone and with her goes part of my heart. Thanks Dori for the laughs and good times.

I'm Dad--I'm just saying....goodbye Dori.