When we got married, my husband and I left dogs with our parents. I had just graduated college and started a new job; he was still in college and working. So, we didn’t have time or money for a honeymoon. We took off a few days though, and two days after our wedding, we adopted our first “child” Brandon. He was about 12 weeks old and totally adorable! He was a handful from the very beginning, but I took him to obedience classes in an effort to get the upper hand. When the first series of obedience classes was over… we barely passed… the instructor told me that when I first arrived with Brandon weeks earlier that he doubted that I would be able to successfully train him. He told me that Dalmatians are one of the hardest breeds to train, and they are so incorrigible that they are the only breed that was tossed out of the “K-9 Corps” in WWI. So, when we did pass, he was impressed. I admit that I worked hard to train him and although he was far from a model dog, he was manageable… and he loved us… and we loved him!
We lived in an apartment for about a year and then bought our first townhouse with a large fenced patio, which allowed him to be outside more. My dad, husband and aunt built Brandon a large, sturdy dog house, with a slanted, shingled roof to help keep the snow off of it and even a window so he could see out while inside. While he did stay in it when the weather was bad, his favorite use of the dog house was sitting on top of it. When he did that, I called him “Snoopy!”
Brandon was big and rambunctious and he had an ongoing battle with glass. When we lived in the first townhouse, it had double sliding glass doors that we used as our back door. They were double because the outside set was a storm window… helping to insulate against the bitter cold. When we left, Brandon would stay outside in his dog house. We parked behind our house and came into the patio area via a gate. Brandon was always waiting at the gate for us. We had gone out with friends one very cold evening. When we got back, I went in the house with Brandon right behind me. My husband was saying goodbye to our friends outside the gate. When Brandon and I entered the house, I closed the outside slider because of the cold. Brandon discovered that my husband was not in the house so he ran full speed back to the gate… not realizing that I had shut the glass door. He hit the glass so hard that he shattered it, and sliced open his chest! My husband heard the crash and hurried in while I was checking Brandon’s head, surprised that he hadn’t knocked himself out, or gotten glass in his eyes. So, we didn’t see the blood on his chest right away. Since it was almost midnight, we took him to an emergency vet hospital. Amazingly, he had only fileted his chest muscle, not causing any serious damage except for the huge cut on his chest which didn’t seem to bother him. They stitched him up and let us bring him home.
We next moved to a house in the “burbs” with a huge yard. Brandon loved that yard, because there was plenty of room to play Frisbee. I bought cheap plastic disks by the dozens and when we weren’t playing with him, he would walk around with one in his mouth. Our backyard sloped and he discovered that if he sat on top of his doghouse he could watch the goings on over the fence. It always amused me to look out and see him sitting there!
A few years later we moved to another townhouse. Brandon was probably about 5 years old by then. Our son was born, and we weren’t sure how he would react to not being the center of attention. But we needn’t have worried. Brandon liked to lay under the crib. When the baby started crawling, Brandon would follow him. He was always in the same room with the baby but on the opposite side of the room… always watching. He was patient and never acted aggressive against any children, or people he knew were supposed to be visiting.
Since he was older and more reliable by then, we were able to leave him in the house when we were gone. Next to our front door, from floor to ceiling, were small windows stacked one on another so we and the dog could see out when someone was at the door. Brandon was a fierce watchdog and always let people know he was there, especially, it seems, when we were not home. One day we left for a short time, and when we came home we discovered that the glass on the lowest window was shattered. At first we thought someone had tried to break in. Then we saw that the glass was broken from the inside because the glass shards were out on our front step. We were puzzled. How did the glass get broken? We checked Brandon and he was fine. Later that evening my husband took Brandon out front and came in laughing. He found an Avon catalog tossed in the bushes outside the front door. Although we don’t know for sure, we think when the Avon lady rang the doorbell, Brandon came running and barking, and probably slid into the window on the slick wood floor landing. We could just imagine the shock of the Avon lady as this barking, 100 lb dog shattered the glass next to the door! We never saw her again.
A year after our daughter was born, Brandon was about 9 years old. Something was wrong with him. He was having a lot of discharge from his nose. We took him to the vet but without extensive and expensive tests, they couldn’t determine what was happening. The most logical guess was that he had a tumor. Surgery was the best option, but with two babies, the estimated $1000 cost was not in our budget. It was clear that he was miserable, although he was still as loving as ever. We finally made the decision that it was time for him to cross the rainbow bridge. Emotionally we were a wreck. He had been our baby for our entire marriage thus far. Neither my husband nor I wanted to take him to the vet. I asked my brother-in-law if he would take him for us. He was not attached to Brandon and was not really a “dog person.” He said he would take him. All I asked was that he bring Brandon’s collar back to us. About an hour later, he came back with the collar. He slammed it down on the kitchen counter and said, “DON’T EVER ASK ME TO DO THAT AGAIN!” He had not anticipated how hard it would be. We were very grateful that he did it for us. And we all missed Brandon. His antics were always amusing us and we missed him barking when someone came to the door. We knew our decision was what was best for him, even though we wished he could have had many more years with us.
About this same time, our year-old daughter was having some serious health issues. For the next year our time and energy was spent trying to figure out how to help her. My husband wanted another dog… I didn’t. But, we adopted a Dalmatian mix who was about a year old from the local shelter. What we didn’t know right away was she was also part pit bull. We hadn’t had her long, when I put Buttons in the laundry room in the basement while I took my 2 yr old to preschool one morning. My daughter and I arrived back home about 1/2 hour later. Buttons met us at the back door! I went downstairs to find the laundry room door reduced to “toothpicks.” She had totally destroyed the door. My trust in her was gone. She went back to the shelter… I just couldn’t risk her hurting one of my children.
Soon after we adopted a purebred Dalmatian puppy but discovered that she was deaf. This is a common ailment in Dalmatians. So we took her back and they had another puppy that could hear, so we brought her home. It was just before Christmas; we named her Holly. I had a 2 yr old and a sick baby… and a husband who traveled a lot for work. I didn’t have time for Holly. Being a typical puppy she was destroying the kids toys, clothes… anything that she found on the floor. I finally had had enough and convinced my husband to find her a new home! A single young man adopted her and I hope she had a very happy life with him.
For the next year, I concentrated on taking care of my kids and especially worrying about my daughter’s deteriorating health. While we never discovered what was causing her poor health, by the time she was 2 years old, she was improving. But a major move was just around the corner so this was no time to get another dog.
The saga will continue in Part 3 with Sheba… the dog who LOVED water!
Grace Notes 