Dog Tales

Best dog I ever owned was Buddy. "Owned" is a bit of a misnomer. You never own a dog. Depending on your temperment and their temperment they'll put up with you or not.

Buddy was a full blood German Shepard, or "Alsatian" as my Jewish neighbor referred to him. She was an old school Jew who couldn't allow herself to like anything that had German in its name. She loved Buddy, so she had to call him an Alsatian.

Absolute beauty of a dog. He put up with me as long as he could. I think the breaking point for him came with the infamous schoolgirl incident. It didn't break him right away. That came later.

The schoolgirl incident. Buddy was my constant companion, but when I went to work he couldn't come with me. I left him in the basement. Spring comes, I figure I don't want to leave Buddy in the basement when it's nice outside. I'll leave him chained to the deck. Let him enjoy the fine spring weather.

Every Wednesday I and he had an extra long day because I took a long drive to the city to visit my children, who lived there with their mom. So instead of a 8 hour day chained to the deck, on Wednesdays he had a 16 hour day chained to the deck.

So one Wednesday I get home, and it's late and there's a message on my answering machine. From the neighbor in behind. Went on and on, but the gist of it was, Buddy was dragging her daughter down the street by her hair. Huh?

Well, I did what any responsible dog owner would do, gave him a whuppin' he'd never forget. After all, you can't be having your hound dragging the neighborhood kids up the street by the hair.

It was only much later that I got to thinking about it. My initial panic was an over-reaction. I knew Buddy. Buddy would never do such a thing in malice. He was playing. Poor Buddy, chained up for 16 hours, saw the kids cutting through my yard, and naturally wanted to play. The kids were probably encouraging that. The chain snapped. Buddy is free. He frolicks down the street, dragging the kid along, the kid who had been encouraging him to play just seconds before.

I get the message from the neighbor, and of course visions of lawsuits and visions of multiple visits from the animal control folks are immediately dancing in my head. So I did what I did.

I think that whuppn' broke the bond between me and Buddy. Not long after, we were out for our morning walk. Buddy took off after a deer. Not unusual. What was unusual was that he didn't come back to me.

About a week later, I'm out for the morning walk, without Buddy. Early morning, still half-dark. I'm on my normal route, and I spy something on the trail in front of me... it's Buddy! There he is on our walking trail, just waiting for me! I was so happy to see him I didn't even have the talk about being away for the last week!

In hindsight, I should have known that he was giving me a message by not coming back to the house. Took me a few years to figure that one out. I was just thrilled to have him back. Best dog I ever knew, and he's back!

A few days later, we're on our pre-dawn walk. Buddy takes off after another deer. I've never seen him again.

I figure on that first escape he probably found a farmer or somebody who treated him well. Didn't keep him chained up 8 hours a day, 16 hours on Wednesday. Buddy came back to say good-bye.

Hope you're happy in your new home, Buddy. Miss ya.