Highland Dawns Rosey Mist, 8 weeks of age
Rosebud and my sisters two dogs
My dear sweet gentle Rosebud 12/21/74 - 01/20/88, my "heart song".
In Memoriam
As this is Rain's blog and she is a Doberman, I am going to tell you about my first heart song dog, "Bud", my first dobie.
Bud was from a back yard breeder in the city in which I worked as an animal control officer. I had seen an ad for a litter of dobie puppies in the paper and went to look at them. They were just turning 8 weeks old and it was a large litter of blacks and reds. I picked out the puppy I wanted and asked them to hold her for me while I went and got the money for her from the bank. Both Bud's parents were red and rust, large and very gentle.
I loved dobies but had never really had contact with them prior to Bud. At that time, 1974, it was unusual to see a dobie with natural ears. The photo of baby Bud was taken the day before her ears were cropped, when she turned 8 weeks old. I learned a lot that day...ear cropping day...I learned that I had hurt my puppy, my precious innocent puppy. Not just with the actual act of cropping her ears but I hurt her every time she banged her blocked ears on anything, she cried and it tore my heart out. I promised Bud, way back then, that I would never ever do that again to another puppy - have their ears cropped - and I was so sorry I had had her ears cropped as they were so beautiful, velvety and soft. It was because of this promise to Bud that Rain's ears remained uncropped.
Bud, the first two years of her life were by my side. As an animal control officer I was permitted to bring her to work with me and she rode in the passenger seat of the van acting as a second set of eyes as I patrolled the suburbs looking for strays. Bud was a wonderful dog catcher too. If I had difficulty catching a stray I would send Bud out and she would make friends with the stray and bring it back to me. Bud would comfort little puppies that were turned over to me and had to ride in the van until quitting time or the cages were filled, which ever came first.
I became interested in obedience training and Bud was a whiz. Bud was shown in obedience AKC shows in the US and also shown in obedience in Canada. My sister showed her black shepherd and golden retriever in obedience and she was the one who took Bud to Canada and showed her as well as her own dogs and they earned their CDs and CDXs. Her golden went on to earn his UD and Tracking title too and he was listed as a Search and Rescue dog back in the mid 1970's.
Back when Bud was young I owned a CJ7 rag top Jeep. Bud rode "shotgun" in the front bucket seat. She was a big girl, 28 1/2" at the shoulder and 100#s and seated next to me she towered over me. Bud was very smart and she, one day refused to ride in the front passenger seat until, I figured it out and put her seat belt on her...she had watched me buckle up from day one. Back then doggie seat belts were not well known if known at all, so I just buckled her into a human lap and shoulder harness as she always sat up to look out the windshield. If I didn't buckle her up she would get off the passenger seat and go into the back and sit on the bench seat until I realized that I had forgotten to buckle her in. When I would unzip the door windows Bud would continuously look over her shoulder while facing forward, very uncertain. When I took the doors off the Jeep and put them in the back Bud would not sit in the front at all, even if I told her to. I don't think she liked to see the ground go whizzing by...not that the door were all that secure whether the windows were zipped up or not.
Bud had a friend, a large French Lop eared rabbit named Flopsy who lived in the house at first then moved into the back yard. When I would prepare melon (Cantaloupe and honeydew) for my lunches I would put the rinds in a pile on the back sidewalk. Each would go and pick out a piece of rind and then they would lie next to each other, out there in the back yard, eating their melon pieces and returning to the rind pile for more until all was eaten. There was never any fighting over the rinds and the two of them sure enjoyed each others company.
One winter night in the mid 1980's Flopsy died, unbeknownst to me. I had put Bud out in the wee hours of the morning while it was still dark, as usual, as I got ready for work. I let Bud back in and went off to work. When I got home in the late afternoon I went to let Bud out and when I opened the back door I saw Flopsy's frozen body outside the door with Bud's footprints all around Flopsy and it looked like Bud had even licked her friend trying to get her to get up. Bud was very sad and I went outside immediately and set to the task of getting frozen Flopsy off the concrete. Flopsy was buried in the spring in the den that she had dug in the hill in the back - sealed forever in her burrow that she so loved, lying at its opening viewing her world, the back yard.
One nice summer day Bud and I were out in the front yard, me on my chaise lounge reading a magazine and Bud lying beside me on her side taking in the warmth of the sun. I saw the dog catcher truck at the end of the block and told Bud to "stay" lying on her side. There had been a stray dog running the neighborhood and I expected that that was why the animal control officer was in the area. He got back in his truck and pulled up in front of my house. 'Oh crap' I thought as he got out of the truck and started up my front steps. I greeted him pleasantly and he began the litany about "all dogs needed to be on a leash..." as he looked at Bud lying on her side in the sun along side my chair. As Bud wore no collar and thus no dog license he started the litany about "all dogs must have their dog licenses....". When he finished he asked where her dog license was. I replied that her dog license was in the house on her collar but added that she didn't need to be on a leash because she was a quadriplegic and with that I got up from my chaise, bent over and scooped up Bud in my arms, her legs dangling below and went into the house and shut the door. The animal control officer stood there with his mouth agape but he didn't knock on the door to inquire further about the dog license I think that he felt bad that he had lectured me about dogs running loose when my dog was a quadriplegic (her license was on file if he checked the city's records)...bad...I was so very bad! but I didn't care and it sure was funny - that look on his face when I scooped up that big dobie and her legs were just dangling below her seemingly useless, she was quite believable. LOL!!!
I think back on Bud and I don't know what it was about her that grabbed my heart and spirit so fiercely. She was so gentle and smart. Everyone who met her just loved her to pieces. If someone came over to the house and lit up a cigarette Bud would walk right over to that person and sneeze right in their face and they would immediately put out their smoke...mine is a non smoking home. Maybe it was that Bud loved a good joke as much as me.
Bud loved cotton candy though it mystified her. I remember the first time I gave her some. I had purchased one of those little home cotton candy machines and when the first batch was ready I ate it while Bud watched. When the second batch was ready I flattened it like a sheet of paper and held it out to Bud. She took a big bite and a look of surprise crossed her face. She looked at the flattened cotton candy with a big bite out of it, opened then closed her mouth and looked at the flattened cotton candy again trying to figure out what had happened to it was she was certain she had in fact taken a bite out of it but it disappeared before she could chew it. She was absolutely puzzled by it. All I could do was laugh and hug my big red dog. Cotton Candy amazed her every time she ate it.
As I was saying, I don't know what it was about Bud or maybe it was all of Bud that touched me deep in my soul. I had never experienced anything like that before. Bud seemed to know what I was thinking and with just the tiniest cue would do what I wanted...sometimes without any cue at all. She knew when I was sad and needed comforting; when I was mad or ill and needed to be left completely alone and not to touch me physically; she knew when I was happy and joined in with her whole face smiling...she loved a good joke even when it was on her; she knew when I was asleep or just pretending and would poke me in the eye with her nose when I was pretending even when I was trying my hardest to fool her she always caught me. I could trust her with the tiniest of animals or the youngest of people as she had great 'mothering' instincts. She was a soft dog who would melt if I looked at her angrily and she would immediately try to make up for what ever it was that had ticked me off.
Toward the end of her life Bud became incontinent and had nocturnal wetting, this upset her greatly. She had a lot of pride and was also very modest and didn't like it when anyone, including me, watched her while she relieved herself...she would look over her shoulder to see if anyone was looking. If someone was looking at her she would stop and walk away to find a more private spot to finish.
That last year of her life I bought a wheat colored Cairn Terrier, AutumnSky, and Bud taught that little doggie so many things. She adored that little dog. Sky was to be Bud's legacy, a piece of Bud that would live on long after Bud's death. In January 1988, Bud was 14+ years old - she had survived a mammary removal due to a tumor and liver/kidney disease diagnosised in 1984 by eating my home cooked well balanced vegetarian meals - she was now looking very thin and frail. She was also very upset with her incontinence and I knew that she was mentally suffering as she was no longer the happy, fun loving dobie I knew so we went to the vet and I held her as she crossed the Rainbow Bridge, 20January1988, my last act of unconditional love for my most beloved girl Bud.
Note: Bud's legacy in Sky was not to be. In the fall of 1988 I went on vacation to visit a relative in Florida leaving Sky with a friend.
The night before I left on vacation I had given Sky several dog cookies which she "buried" in various corners of the house. She was so cute, looking over her shoulder as she "dug" the hole and placed her dog cookie in it then "covered" it by using her nose - she would have made a great mime. When she was finished she jumped back up on the couch and we snuggled.
I got a call at my Uncle's house in Florida from my sister telling me that Sky had been killed. Sky had gotten out of my friend's fenced yard and was hit by a car. My friend rushed Sky to the vet but she could not be saved.
When I got home, there were Sky's dog cookies in the corners of the rooms where she had "buried" them with such care. I cried as I looked at them. I could not bring myself to pick them up fore in doing so I would be admitting Sky was never coming home and I couldn't bring myself to acknowledge that fact. I think I lasted a day or two home in that empty dogless house before I called my sister and asked if I could borrow her golden, Bud's best friend and she loaned me her dog until I got a new puppy 2 weeks after my return home as I knew I couldn't be dogless any longer. That is how DuskyHaze, the dark brindle Cairn Terrier, came into my life - my first Service Dog.
Until his death a year or so later, I would go to my sister's and get her golden for an outing ending up with lunch and an ice cream from McDonald's - he so loved those outings with me and I with him.
You know...I miss all of these precious souls a lot.
26 September 2007
Long before her time, Talon TallBird my Sun Conure and first parrot, flew over the Rainbow Bridge on 26Sept2007 due to an unexpected, unforeseen, tragically fatal freak accident with a 1" or less length of cotton thread from one of her cotton play ropes, that had a tiny knot in it.
Talon came into my pack in the spring of 2000, when DuskyHaze was still the pack leader, as a very young baby who still needed to be fed warm moist baby parrot food by dropper.
What I did in socializing this little one, to make her place in this huge world less fearful, were things that I later did with baby Rain. Talon was handled everyday, obviously for her feedings but also to get her used to just being handled. This included every part of her body so that when she went to the Avian vet for her annual checkups she would be calm. I played "this little piggy" with her toes while she was lying on her back. This also got her used to nail clipping before I actually clipped her nails. I gently stretched out each wing, making clipping her flight feathers easy. I drove her around in my truck showing her the world and explaining it as I drove.
Parrots are very bright and have the ability, as do dogs, to learn a lot about a lot of things when one takes the time. Although they may not learn what all the words mean that I use they learn to read my voice inflections, facial expressions and body language. All of these things come into play when they may experience something new or suddenly become stressed or frightened.
There is an American Indian song that I just love and I began singing it to Talon when I was hand feeding her. This song naturally became her calming song. If and when she was ever stressed or frightened I would calmly sing this song and she would immediately relax. The very first time Talon went to the Avian vet, after a long truck ride, the vet commented on how calm she was and how close to normal her heart rate was for a first vet visit.
By the time Rain came into my pack, Talon's flock, DuskyHaze and SnapDragon had already crossed the Rainbow Bridge. Rain learned by watching the pack and flock. From TigerLily she learned the names for relieving herself as Tig by this time was using puppy papers and there was one in the living room. Rain easily translated Tig's actions and my words to her going and doing her own business outside. From raising and socializing Talon to the world, I learned what and how to teach Rain these same things that would help her become a Service Dog, to take new situations and places in stride. Talon's calming song is Rain's calming song.
My little twitter bird is sorely missed. I owe Talon a lot as I look at Rain lying on the floor along side me as I type. Talon was a most wonderful teacher. My heart feels broken.
