We found our first dog underneath a lawnmower in the middle of the woods on Will’s parents’ land. He was a little, bitty bundle of black fur. His Mom was a mutt and his Dad was a lab. He looked like his Dad. Will had been wanting for a dog for some time, but I was hesitant. He picked up the little puppy and looked at me and, of course, I caved. We named him Trey.
We brought him home and he was just a tiny little thing. He fell asleep in my lap after the drive to our house. He looked very cute laying there until….a big, huge WORM crawled out of his BUTT and onto my LEG!!!! I literally threw the poor puppy and did the heebie-jeebies dance for about 5 minutes! Yep, next day, it was off to the vet for some serious de-worming medicine. I don’t think he ever forgave me for throwing him. I don’t blame him.
One day, Will and Trey were out in the back yard at our house in South Georgia. Behind our house at the time was a swamp. Will threw the ball to Trey, who loved to play fetch. But, instead of bringing it back, he started barking at something on the ground. Will went to check it out and saw a moccasin snake that was very much alive and very much mad. He was wearing a beer can around his neck that looked like it had been shot with a gun. I couldn’t make this up if I tried. I had never seen such a thing—a snake wearing a beer can for a turtleneck. He had obviously crawled in the can and couldn’t get himself out. Will yelled for Trey to get away from the snake and right about that time, the snake struck. It got Trey right on the nose—two perfect holes that were now bleeding. We freaked.
I ran into the house and called the vet, who happened to be in church at the time. He said that if Trey’s nose swelled to 3 times its normal size then he had venom in him. Otherwise, he said he would be ok. Regardless though, he told us that there was no anti-venom in stock in the county so we had to sit there and hope his nose didn’t swell. We looked at it from all angles for about an hour while he looked back probably wondering if we had gone crazy. Thankfully, he was ok. The vet told us that it the snake had most likely deleted its venom supply by striking the beer can that was around its neck.
A couple of years later we moved to the middle of the woods in a house that had open windows with no curtains. One night, while Will was at work, I was sitting there watching TV and all of a sudden I heard someone pounding on the front door as if they were trying to knock it down. Before I knew it, Trey (who was now a large dog) ran in there and was standing up on his hind legs with all of his teeth showing and he was barking like crazy. I had never seen him act like that, he became a different dog. He was normally a big baby. Standing at the door, was a man who was at least 6’3” and about 275 pounds or more. He had red hair and looked like a very large troll. He was obviously drunk and obviously trying to get in my house. To say that I was freaked out is an understatement. I was hysterical. I yelled at him that if he came in my dog was going to bite him and he yelled back that he wasn’t scared of my dog. But, obviously he was, because he kind of backed off after he realized Trey was not going to leave his standing position of looking and barking at him through the window of the front door. The man finally left and I called the cops.
Trey literally sat on my feet while I waited for them. I was trying to pace the floor because I was out of my mind scared and he was trying to sit on my feet the whole time I was pacing. Before the cops arrived though, the man came back. Trey went right back to his position at the door and went all out with his snarling and barking. This time the man didn’t get out of his truck and he left again. The cops wouldn’t arrive for 45 more minutes, and they were of no help whatsoever, and I was beyond terrified. I truly believe that Trey prevented that man from coming in and if he would have, who knows what would have happened. To this day, I have a fear of being alone or going to bed without Will…that’s another story entirely.
One day Trey decided to escape his pen while we were away. Will came home and saw Trey in the neighbor’s yard up the road from us. He brought him home and discovered that Trey had decided to clean up all of the footballs that the kids around the neighborhood had left out! He loved footballs and he took it upon himself to steal his own private little stash!
Belle came into our lives when we were living in GA. Will and I were in the front yard getting ready to mow the grass. All of a sudden I noticed our neighbor—a man—hitting this tiny little black and brown puppy, with a broom. She was so tiny, about the size of a rat, and to this day, I will never understand why this man felt the need to hit her with a broom. I don’t get it. Anyway, I ran over there and told him that if he would stop hitting her I would make sure she never went in his yard again. I scooped her up and she was ours from that day forward. We did run an ad in the paper because we thought maybe someone was looking for her, but no one ever called.
We were living on Belmont Avenue at the time so we named her Belle, short for Belmont Avenue. We called her Belmont Avenue a lot because it just fit her for some reason. We also called her Liberty Belle, Taco Belle, Belle South, etc.
Belle had a very odd personality in that she was very nonchalant about things. She could take you or leave you. She never liked to play with toys. I guess she was sort of a snob, if dogs can be snobs. One thing she did like though was food. That dog just loved to eat. She despised cats with her every being. If she saw one, she would go crazy.
We lived in a rental house once (we’ve moved a lot) that had an abandoned building two lots down. In that building were tons of stray cats. Belle, who was a true Houdini, would manage to escape from anything. We did everything to keep that dog in our huge fenced in backyard. However, she would always manage to escape somehow and it drove us crazy. One day she got out and Will and I went into our usual panic mode running all over the neighborhood trying to find her. This particular day, we found her hanging by her front paws from the abandoned building with her back paws going a mile a minute trying to propel herself into the building with the cats. She was stuck on the ledge so it was a good thing we found her. If she would have gotten in, those cats would have eaten her alive.
Both dogs, who were the best of friends, left us this year. We lost Trey in February and we lost Belle in September. Both of them died due to kidney and liver failure and they were both 8 years old. The vet put them down before they suffered too much and it just about killed us. It is impossible to describe to someone who has never been through it.
But, we moved on and continue forward. We will always look back and remember the memories those two silly dogs left for us. Remind me to tell you about the time that both of them decided to escape the yard and take a swim in our neighbor’s pool…
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