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Memories of Arlie


KayC

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He had Kennel Cough and Acute Chronic Colitis.  I tried every good dogfood known to man before I found one he could tolerate...a few years later he could only have two cups dogfood a day, the other two cups would be in homemade diet with Probiotics and Metamucil.  We walked twice a day, every day.  The vet told me he not only wasn't 2-7, he was not quite a year old and had four more years of growth...oh and by the way, he weighs 79 lbs, not 63.  The rescue was wrong about everything.  I called them and they told me in an uncaring way that I could return him for a refund within two weeks.  Are you kidding me?!  Give him back to THEM?!  Not on your life!  They hadn't even noticed he was sick.  He housebroke himself within two weeks.  He was the smartest dog I've ever had.

I'm so glad I took him home with me that day and didn't return him.  It was hard because two days later not only was he sick but I got the flu.  We toughed it out  together and have been together ever since.  He's my protector and best friend, my incentive.  My "little boy" whose feet are as big as mine.

Arlie sick.JPG

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I came home from work one night to find he’d tried to dig his way out of his pen…he had a good size hole but it was no match for his girth, and he’d quickly given up.  This was too much work!  He never dug another hole.

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Wonderful memories. How funny that you had the instinct about him just seeing his photo. It sure seems like it was meant to be. I remember when we found Courage the Cat - a little girl was also looking at him and my husband turned and told her, sorry he's ours! (And we hadn't even told the rescue staff, haha. So yes, I guess we bullied a child for our cat.)

And I loved you toughed out being sick together. You've been through so much more I am sure - keep posting. Always a joy to read about Arlie. He was so lucky to have you.   

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Kay I haven't been on  I'm a few. But you've been on my mind always. I know you miss Arlie so much. 

He looks so happy in the photos. As if he's smiling. To be honest it brought me joy. I hope you're coping well as it's very similar to losing a child,best friend, and a different special bond ,love that only our fur babies can give. My only comfort right now is my pet. I hate even calling him that as he's like my child. I rush home from work just to lay next to him . Feels like part of you is missing I'm sure. 

Just wanted to check in on you as I'm still struggling as well. Reading your latest post Im sad to see you feeling all the things we feel all over again. Counting days, time, reflecting on memories . Hurts. 

Be well Kay

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Incidentally, I've bought Arlie a ton of toys, squeakers, stuffed animals, I buried him with Duck and a bone.  Duck was his first, and I think his favorite, he kept it next to his bed.  I miss having it here but wanted him to have it.

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Oh my gosh, is it bad - that made me laugh especially the book! I imagine you have a lot of teeth marks on things - bittersweet marks. I remember finding our cat's hair for weeks. At one point I had collected a small pile that I let sit there for weeks until my husband vacuumed one day. :(

 

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He looks guilty! Mine also chewed shoes "expensive" ones seem to be his favorite. Also my dirty laundry. "Crotch" and would hide every time I came and found his bad deeds . He knew he was being bad. The guilt and looking away said it all. 

Same look Arlie is giving me on that last photo. Lol. He's adorable. I had a German Shepherd name Bones. He was fluffy like Arlie and huge. He was a police dog. Retired. But boy was he huge. I couldn't keep him

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When Arlie turned about two he declared himself my self-appointed guard dog, which role he carried with honor the rest of his life.  It didn’t matter who it was, he would scare the living daylights out of them.  This was especially true for Jack, the guy who delivered my firewood, and for roofers.  Jack had dogs, but apparently Arlie didn’t consider them such, littles that they were.  I went through five roofs in five years…the first contractor was on drugs and started cutting up my rafters, throwing away my perfectly good wooden wigglemold…Arlie NEEDED to bark at him.  I finally got him gone and onto the second contractor who paid no mind to my new wigglemold, putting the roof up in two hours without it, every square inch leaking in its wake.  Arlie needed to bark at him too.  I hired another contractor for the house roof and after he went to prison, it started leaking in places it never had before.  Finally we got “the crème de la crème” of roofers, Don Jackson, and he did it right…still with Arlie barking at him.  He told me the last time he came that Arlie hadn’t barked until I got home.  I guess he finally figured Don was okay.  My “Beware of Dog” sign still stands today.

Arlie running free XS.jpg

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One day I drove to my sister’s with him.  I got him out of the pickup and walked up to the house with him.  She wanted to go out for a smoke and opened the front door…out he went!  I was terrified!  Her house was a block off the busy highway and he wasn’t street savvy…we lived on a quiet dead-end street in the country!  He ran around back, but the fence was down.  He was playing cat and mouse with us!  Game on!  I ran into her house and found some cheese in her refrigerator, quickly offering it to him outside…he kind of looked like, “What else have you got to offer me?”  I handed it to her and ran back inside looking for some other food to offer…found some baloney.  Finally, heart racing, I got him back! 

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Arlie needed to go to the vet but I was working so I asked a neighbor friend, Rich, if he could take him there. He loved this neighbor, he was his favorite person in the world and he loved nothing more than riding in the back end of his Dodge Ram, which made our truck look wimpy.  Arlie enjoyed the ride all the way down the mountain, taking in the air, looking at deer and elk on the way!  He was king of the mountain riding in the big truck!  Down the hill they went, getting to the bottom and stopping to get out.  Rich took hold of the leash, and out Arlie leaped, with momentum!  The leash slipped from Rich’s hand and away he went, 350 lb Rich huffing and puffing behind him!  People were starting to gather, laying odds on which one would win out.  Arlie headed back behind the bank…by the time Rich got alongside of it, Arlie was emerging from the other side, grinning!  Over to the post office!  People lunging towards him, trying to catch his leash…at last someone got him and returned him to Rich, who took him inside the vet, still huffing and puffing, but not taking any more chances with him!  Arlie’s big adventure!

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Arlie has been my sole companion for 10 1/2 years.  He got up to 140 lbs, but last weighed in at 106.  When I broke my right elbow, he walked so careful with me, never pulling, The same when we walked on pure ice.  He takes pills down his throat like a chump!  He's so considerate...he doesn't wake me unless he has an emergency and needs to go out, and even then he'll try to tell me real quietly like he doesn't want to wake me but needs me to know.  I love him more than life itself!  (Incidentally, when he weighed in his last day, he weighed in at 107.5, gaining 1 1/2 lbs during his cancer time!  That's very unusual but I attribute it to all of the special treats I enticed him to eat his food with.)

 

***Adendum...when Kitty died and my friend weighed on this same scale, I discovered Arlie must have gaine a good 12 lbs as their scale was way off...this attributed to their botching his euthanasia.  :(  Something I can never forgive the vet for.

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I’d taught Arlie to be careful for “little” (cats, chickens, etc.) and to be quiet around deer and horses.  We had three horses down the street he’d befriended the time he got out and got into their corral.  One day as we were taking our walk, Reno (the leader of the pack) leaned his head down over the fence as Arlie reached up, nose to nose, and kissed each other!

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Another time on one of our walks, I looked down the street and saw what I thought was a giant black dog.  I wondered where it came from I hadn’t seen any around our area like that…when all of a sudden I realized, “That’s not a dog, that’s a bear!”  I heard that bears were scared of barking dogs so I tried to get Arlie to bark.  Nothing doing.  He was quiet as a church mouse.  I thought, “Maybe he just needs me to give him the idea” so I started barking, hoping to give him the hint.  I saw my neighbor, Sheila, looking out the window at us, pointing at me and laughing!  Of course she was out of range of seeing the black bear standing up at the end of the road and didn’t know what I was up to.  I barked and barked but Arlie remained silent, hiding behind me, all 140 lbs of him.  The bear finally ran into the woods and we made our way home, me chiding Arlie for being no help.  But it was me who had taught him to be quiet around wildlife, he didn’t know bears didn’t fall into the horse and deer category!

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On 8/29/2019 at 6:44 PM, KayC said:

Being a puppy he chewed up everything.  And I mean EVERYTHING!

Oh my gosh, that's such a cliche puppy thing, isn't it?  When Charlie was a tiny pup, he only chewed a few slippers/shoes and one cushion.  But when he started teething at 5 or 6 months, he decided the claw feet on our solid oak dining table (an indulgence we loved) were perfect to wrap his little mouth around and chew away.  His mouth was small enough that all he did was leave some thin grooves.  We decided to just finish into the exposed oak and leave the marks as a symbol of the life being lived in our home.  Amazing the memories that come flooding back when I think about that special boy.

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Everything we've been through we've been through together.  Like the time he got a tick on his tongue (still a puppy)...it took every wrestling move my son had ever learned to employ to get that off!  I had to bop him in the head with a stuffed toy shaped like a dog bone to get him in submission for the two seconds it took to get the tweezers and remove it.  He kayayed like a stuck hog when we did that even though it didn't hurt.  He cried like a girl, this big tough dog!  We've had so many adventures, so many memories and I cherish them all.  

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Years ago my friend, Jim, taught Arlie to “speak quiet”.  When we told him to speak quiet and he did, he’d get a treat.  It was more to help him with self-control than anything, but it was funny watching him try it.  He so wanted to get it right!  He’d be exuberant about it and the first bark would come out too loud.  He’d shake his head, like, “Oh no, that’s not right!”  Then he’d hunker down and try again.  The next few times his cheeks would flange out blowing air but no sound would come out and he’d shake his head again, he knew that wasn’t quite right either.  He’d try so hard!  Trying to get his wild eyes under control, he’d finally emit a little sound and we’d reward him with a treat.  I wish I had this on video, it was the funniest thing to watch, you never saw a dog try so hard!

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When I first got Arlie, my son’s dog, Skye was staying with me.  Skye was a master beggar and he’d sit at the table and make use of those beautiful soft eyes to evoke pity in us so we’d share something we were eating with him.  I know, I know, we shouldn’t reward begging, but he was so hard to resist!  Arlie quickly caught on.  With Skye to my right and Arlie to my left they patiently waited.  But Arlie couldn’t sit still and nothing was happening to his liking, so he went around to my right side to try there.  Skye figured that was HIS begging territory so he curled his upper lip and warned him with a growl.  Arlie did the same back.  Neither of them meant a whole lot by it and immediately turned back to their happy-happy looks.  It was so funny to watch them turn it on and off so quickly!  But Arlie got the message and went back to my left side, after all, you have to obey the older dog!

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On 10/2/2019 at 8:11 AM, KayC said:

I know, I know, we shouldn’t reward begging, but he was so hard to resist!

:D:D  Oh, that is so funny.  I know how hard it is to resist the sweet eyes and smiling faces.  We had a "no feeding from the table" rule that I found difficult to follow at first.  I'd start to sneak something to Charlie and would hear, "Ahem..." from across the table as my very observant husband noticed what I was about to do.  Rats.  I got better about it, but it took a long time to break Charlie of thinking that mom might "drop" something for him.

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One day I was opening a lower cupboard to get something out when the phone started ringing.  I made a grab for it, it went dead.  I ran for the other phone and answered just in the nick of time.  All of a sudden I hear this noise in the next room…Arlie was gobbling down some mouse poison in the open cupboard!  I hung up the phone, called ER, an hour+ away, and away we went!  I drove down there, got inside, they wanted to take his weight, he wasn’t having it.  I told them his weight and they took him back, locking me outside…telling me they’d call me when ready for me to pick him up.  It was a couple minutes from my job so I went to my office to wait.  Finally they called and I went to retrieve him.  They said he growled at them so they couldn’t get the charcoal down his throat.  Why hadn’t they called me to try?  They only had a short span of time to get it down him and now it was too late!  I told them if Arlie had wanted to bite them, he would have bit them, I would have growled too if  a stranger tried cramming charcoal down my throat and wouldn’t let my mommy stay with me!  They sent out a letter blackballing him from vets in the area and told me I’d have to wait six weeks to find out if he’d live through it or not. Fortunately, he did.

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Another time I was feeding him, I opened up his dogfood container and scooped out his food, putting it in the bowl, when the phone rang.  I turned to answer the phone (I should have learned by now) and when I came to I realized he’d been scarfing down dogfood as fast as he could!  I don’t know how much he gulped down before I caught him gulping down water and he was starting to pooch out the sides and hurting!  He was literally crying he hurt so bad.  I called the emergency vet and they said to bring him in.  I told them he couldn’t sit down, how was I going to drive him 1 ½ hours away?  They said, never mind, to walk him, it aids digestion.  Oh, and they told me not to let him throw up!  (How are you supposed to stop a dog from throwing up?) My son and I walked him for hours, and he did throw up, it seemed to relieve him a bit.   

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One day Kitty was sitting on the stepstool in the kitchen when Arlie came in to see about his food.  She reached out and blopped him with her sharp claws, narrowly missing his eye.  He reached out and very gently blopped her back, being careful not to hurt her.  He’d had enough and needed to show her he wasn’t going to just take it.  She looked all mad and sharp and ran off in an indignant huff!  I told her it served her right, to quit being mean to him, he didn’t deserve it.  I couldn’t believe how gentle he was even at teaching her a lesson.

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On 10/15/2019 at 5:50 AM, KayC said:

  She reached out and blopped him with her sharp claws, narrowly missing his eye.  He reached out and very gently blopped her back, being careful not to hurt her.  He’d had enough and needed to show her he wasn’t going to just take it. 

Darn right he did.  He had to tell her, "Hey, sis.  Knock it off.  You're being a brat!"

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When I’d gotten Arlie, he not only had acute chronic Colitis, but he also had Kennel Cough from the rescue I’d gotten him from.  I was telling my mom this on the phone (she had a lot of mental issues as well as dementia forming) and she announced that SHE had kennel cough too, and began to give a couple of fake coughs to prove it.  Over the years whenever my family thought about this (she has since passed from dementia) it has brought us a smile.    

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One day I had to bring Arlie to the vet out of town since ours is only open on Wednesdays (hazard of country life) and I needed to go to the doctor so a friend of mine said he’d watch Arlie while I was at the doctor.  He went into Jim’s bedroom and clamored up on his bed, which was higher than most, and then was too scared to jump down.  Jim fixed him a steak…he jumped down for that!  (I told him I would have jumped down for that!)  Jim’s roommate was used to his own dog, Winston, who actually obeyed orders.  He opened the front door and out Arlie went!  Oh no!  Jim was scared Arlie was going to get run over on his watch…he ran one way, his roommate the other, just as the city bus was coming!  He finally got him back, no worse for the wear, but both of them worn out from the run.

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Early on I tried to introduce Kitty, my 14 year old cat, to Arlie.  She was having nothing to do with it, she’d rather stay outside and take her chances.  The bully neighborhood cats kept trying to get her food away from her so I’d put her in a box with her food and let her out when she was done so she could eat in peace.  After about 1 2/3 years of this, she decided she’d rather take her chances with Arlie, so she entered the house, told him she was boss and that was it.  I’ve actually caught him going clear around the house to avoid walking by this 9 lb. old cat.  They lived in peace until Arlie’s death when Kitty was 25.

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My son & DIL brought their dogs to my home and we all visited Rich down the street…they had Bruno and Mozzy and Rich had Sammy and Miss Piggy along with my Arlie.  The dogs ran and played in the snow!  It was Arlie’s favorite day of his life, all of his favorite friends to play with.  They ran back and forth, chasing each other’s tails!  Miss Piggy mostly watched from the sidelines…she lived to 19, a little tired but enjoying the show.  This was taken that day.

Arlie running.jpg

Arlie's face-sm.jpg

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6 minutes ago, KayC said:

My son & DIL brought their dogs to my home and we all visited Rich down the street…they had Bruno and Mozzy and Rich had Sammy and Miss Piggy along with my Arlie.  The dogs ran and played in the snow!  It was Arlie’s favorite day of his life, all of his favorite friends to play with.  They ran back and forth, chasing each other’s tails!  Miss Piggy mostly watched from the sidelines…she lived to 19, a little tired but enjoying the show.  This picture was taken that day.

Arlie running.jpg

Dear Kay:

That is an absolutely awesome picture.  There is nothing quite like watching a group of dogs playing together.  Another great memory that no one will ever be able to take away from you.  Thanks for sharing.

Blessings,

Stevve 

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One day my friend Rich called me and said Miss Piggy was missing, could I come help him find her?  Arlie and I walked up and down the street calling her, it was snowing and the street was covered with white and piling up.  We came home and got the pickup, slowly going up and down the street, calling her, no answer.  I put up flyers and posted on Facebook.  The next morning I got a response from one neighbor, she said the crazy Russian lady often took dogs in.  She lived two houses down from Rich so she should have known where Miss Piggy belonged.  I’d had a previous encounter with her on my walks with Arlie, her little dogs running crazy, her wanting to borrow neighbor’s phones and upset they wouldn’t let her.  I’d told her maybe it was the tampons in her hair.  I let her know it’d be cheaper to get some rollers at the dollar store and she might come across better if she used them instead.  Rich didn’t want to go to her house by himself, so he picked us up and we went down there.  He wanted me to open the gate so I did, falling on the ice and tearing my Meniscus.  I got back in the truck and we entered her property.  He sent me alone into her house…it was a little unsettling as I maneuvered through her kitchen.  I discovered she was a hoarder.  There was a pathway through her place to the living room where she was in bed with her five little dogs and Miss Piggy, all they had to eat/drink was pizza and beer.  She explained that her well was on the fritz.  Miss Piggy looked like, “Save me!” and I got her out of there!  Poor little Piggy (sweet little Pit Bull), what an adventure she had to tell about!

IMG_2594 sm.jpg

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9 minutes ago, KayC said:

  "I’d told her maybe it was the tampons in her hair."  

 

Are your serious, Kay?  Please don't tell these kind of stories while I'm drinking a cup of coffee.  Damn near spit up all over the keyboard!!!

It was a true adventure.  You should have been awarded, at the very least, a Bronze Star for heroic service in a combat zone.  Sounds like she would have been a good candidate for the TV series, "Hoarding: Buried Alive"

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41 minutes ago, A.P. Hill said:

Sounds like she would have been a good candidate for the TV series, "Hoarding: Buried Alive"

Definitely.  She has had a hard life that accounts for her being mentally off, but I was so worried about Miss Piggy, can you imagine, her and her dogs were living on pizza and beer!  Arlie had been truly worried about Miss Piggy when we were out looking for her, we were all so glad to have her home safely.

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My sister gave me a package to put under the Christmas tree.  Whenever I put up the tree, it involved moving Arlie’s recliner away from the window so I could put the tree there, but he didn’t mind giving up the spot for a month or so…he’d lay behind the couch watching all the events as I strung lights and hung ornaments.  I hung cat and dog friendly ornaments at the bottom but somehow they never bothered with them even though I tried to interest them in them.  One morning I walked in the living room and found pieces of cardstock…I looked for the culprit behind the couch and there he was, cowering, he knew he’d done wrong…and I quickly saw that the package my sister had handed me to put under the tree…contained chocolates.  A similar one had gone under the tree for my daughter so I opened it to find out how many pieces it contained so I’d know how many he ate…eleven pieces of cellophane wrapped pieces were missing. He was one sick pooch.  I called around and found a vet that would take him and away we went, over an hour away.  She was great!  She laid on the floor with him and gave him a belly rub, plied him with treats, listened to his heartbeat, got his temperature, no one had gotten so much cooperation from him!  I watched for cellophane to pass through and only found a couple of pieces, never did find out what happened to the rest.  Several days and some medicines later, he was back to normal.  My sister vowed to never buy me chocolate again.

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That is such a wonderful story Kay.  It’s funny how they know instinctively that they did something wrong but just couldn’t help themselves in that moment.  Glad everything turned out OK and you found out in time to get Arlie help.

It’s hard to get upset or angry when our pets do things like this.  My house, except for two rooms, is all wood floors with a few area rugs.  Whenever Micah had to vomit, he without fail would invariably find the carpet or the rugs.  Never once did I get mad or upset about the mess I would have to clean up.   My only concern was that he may be very sick.  Instead of him following me from room to room all day, it was me who did the following all day to make sure it wasn’t something serious.

Same with Arlie.  Instead of getting upset, you knew how toxic chocolate is to dogs and sought immediate care.

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No I didn't mind the loss of chocolate or the trip to Eugene or expense, it was totally him I was worried about.  She said it could take a year before the cellophane caused a blockage, that was the huge concern. He got very, very sick from the chocolate poisoning, but the medicine helped him recover.  Since I never did find all the wrappers and I picked up each and every one of his stools every day, I knew they had to still be in him, they don't dissolve, but they must have found an out of the way place to reside, still when you think about it, nine wrappers unaccounted for is a lot.  Good thing he was a big dog!

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I didn’t know you found out what caused his illness.  I so sorry.. it’s been a month and a week but feels like it’s so surreal.

You have been a good ear for me

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I am quitting this site.. too much money but wanted to thank you for all your support.  I am still in pain but I’m getting a little better.  All your thoughts and stories were so helpful. Thank you 

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I'm sorry you're leaving.  Perhaps you could write to the adm. and let them know it's a hardship?

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Arlie had a nice covered pen and dog house but he wanted a fenced yard of his own.  I hired a contractor to put up “Arlie’s Fence” and showed him where to put it, the gate, etc.  The first time I took Arlie out onto the front porch, no leash, he couldn’t believe it!  He ran around the fence, checking it out and sniffing the border.  He quickly caught on, he could go into the pen or out into the fence or he could chill out on the front porch, the choice was his!  He came back and gave me a kiss of thanks.  I would that I had done this years before, what a difference it made to him!  We still went on our daily walks, twice a day, every day, but he loved the freedom this afforded him! 

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My son invited us up to his place, it was 2 ½ hours away so Arlie rode in the back seat of my Civic.  My DIL had a book on places to hike in their vicinity so we set out, the dogs in the back of the truck, grandkids in tote.  We got to the beginning of the trail, my son and DIL following behind, Arlie and I in the lead.  We’re near the top of the mountain when the trail began to narrow.  We reached an area where half of it had washed away and I don’t know how he did it, but Arlie was turned around on the trail.  There was no room and I was trying to help him but he was in panic mode and when he gets like that, he doesn’t even hear what I’m saying.  All of a sudden his hind feet slipped off the trail, dangling and without even thinking, the mother in me swooped out and brought his hind end back in on the trail.  My son was watching this from several feet behind me and turned every shade of white.  He said, “Next time, cut the dog loose.”  I replied, “Not on your life!  I’d go with him first!”  I was horrified to think how close a call it had been and I knew I meant it…I’d risk my own life for him…indeed I HAD!  I never wanted to take him on a trail I didn’t know from then on.

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8 hours ago, KayC said:

was horrified to think how close a call it had been and I knew I meant it…I’d risk my own life for him…indeed I HAD!  I never wanted to take him on a trail I didn’t know from then on.

Kay, of course you would have.  When we pet parents say they mean more to us than life itself, it's exactly what we mean.

Warmest regards,

Steve

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Then came the Snowpocolypse February 2019, as we came to call it.  We got 4’5” mostly overnight and it froze to 18 degrees, making it too hard to shovel.  The region was without electricity for over eight days, the highway was closed, and most of us lost our food.  My son took off work to come check on us, but had to stay the night in a neighboring town to wait for a convoy to let him through.  He shoveled snow off the roof so my mobile home wouldn’t collapse, and shoveled the driveway in front of the pickup, which had six feet of snow in front of it from the roof.  We took the truck out and when we came back, Arlie was out front!  The gate was still shut so I was puzzled…until we saw what he had done.  He climbed up a mound of snow, shoveled down from the roof, and jumped over the gate onto another mound of snow to make his great escape!  We had to quickly shovel the mounds away and get him back.  I spent days clearing away trees, limbs and debris so his front yard would be safe for him to run in again.

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43 minutes ago, KayC said:

We took the truck out and when we came back, Arlie was out front!  The gate was still shut so I was puzzled…until we saw what he had done.  He climbed up a mound of snow, shoveled down from the roof, and jumped over the gate onto another mound of snow to make his great escape!  We had to quickly shovel the mounds away and get him back.  I spent days clearing away trees, limbs and debris so his front yard would be safe for him to run in again.

Kay:

That Arlie was such a resourceful little scamp!!!  I absolutely love your "Memories of Arlie".  Keep em coming.

 

Warmest regards,

Steve

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This dog had so much personality, he'd become a huge part of my life, and every moment in it!  We'd wake early in the morning and I'd fix his breakfast, it took 1 1/2 hours to make it and clean up the kitchen afterwards, he'd wait patiently, he knew everything about me, knew how to read all the signs of me.  He loved cleaning out the pan, and when I fed Kitty, he waited while I dished up her food into her bowl and he'd get the empty can, which he'd take dutifully in his teeth and march off to someplace quiet and out of the way, where he'd lay down with it and lick it out.  He'd listen for the sound of his leash being picked up and he'd emerge from his hiding place, ready for our walk.  He loved our walks!  He was an explorer, he'd sniff out every spot on the street, look for every dog, he knew the ones he needed to fear and the ones he didn't have to worry about.  He looked for the goats, the sheep, the horses along the way.  He had to baptize every spot that smelled with his own scent while I waited patiently.  We weren't just out for a walk, it was an adventure, him and I together.  

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When we were together in the house and he'd hear something outside, he'd check it out in his recliner by the window, and if he noticed a dog going by, he'd get so excited, making sure I knew he needed to go outside and let them know HE was there!  He'd run up the embankment, back and forth across the front fence..he didn't bark, he was quiet but excitedly doing his job.  Only if someone came on our place would he bark, giving them a good scare.  I'm pretty sure he took years off the life of the UPS, Fed Ex, and mail men.  No one would dare burglarize our place with Arlie on duty!  He took his job as my protector very seriously.  

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Sometimes when I’d take Arlie out to his pen, the squirrels would be 50’ up in a tree perched above us, and throw green cones at us, hitting us in the head.  Many a time I’d hear Arlie “yike!” as they hit him in the head.  One day I came home and found a dead squirrel in his pen…he’d finally exacted his revenge.  I couldn’t fault him, they kind of had it coming for their years of torment.

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I remember when my 24 year old Kitty had stored up energy and started dashing across the house, full speed.  Arlie came to, eyes alert, and took off after her, game on!  She looked alarmed and ran faster, away from him, Arlie in hot pursuit until I called him off.  He looked confused, why would I call an end to this fun game just as it began?!  After all, SHE started it!

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