Tani & Kip 1999
“Happiness is a warm puppy.” – Charles M. Schulz
I love animals, period. We have had dogs, cats, horses, birds, fish, turtles, and then my grandparent’s farm in NE PA allowed for all kinds of interesting animal world experiences. But I have also not had animals for long periods of time in my life. They bring much to the spirit and daily life, but they are responsibility and work that sometimes just isn’t conducive to what is going on in your life. So I have never been one to have an animal unless I felt the environment was right for them as well as me. I love them too much to give them less than a reasonable home.
When we lived in a townhouse, my mother, a big animal lover, would threaten every year to buy the kids a puppy for Christmas. I was very firm with her that she not do that. I knew what kind of dog I wanted and I knew that our townhouse and small yard, working, etc., was not the environment I wanted to add a dog to the mix. We had a cat and that was just fine. Of course the kids wanted a dog. What kid doesn’t? So I promised them, “When we move to a house, we will get a dog.” In 1999, we moved to a house, on a court, with a yard and we got a dog. Kip. My new neighbor Gail and I both wanted a lab. We were looking for rescues, when she came home with a puppy, Maddie (Kip’s sister). With hands on hips I said, “Wait… ok, so are there more?” Yes, there were more. The next day we headed to the breeder, with her daughter Sasha, and we came home with Kip. We have the sweetest picture of the two puppies waddling across the grass and laying down, heads touching as if it was such a relief to see each other! We humans do that, impose our sentient feelings on animals. Anyway, in reality, we had the perfect world. Two dogs, but only one came home every night. We put up an invisible fence for both yards and both dogs had run of our yards. I loved coming home and seeing two gorgeous yellow labs laying on my porch with their paws hanging over, ever watchful.
His favorite, in the A/C, hanging out
When Kip was about 10-12 weeks old, my vet was concerned with a heart murmur. She said it wasn’t unusual for puppies to have that, but it disappears, his didn’t. Worry and concern started to sweep over me. We were madly, head over heels, love at first site, in love with Kip. How could this be? I called the breeder to discuss and of course, he “guaranteed” the dog up to one year and he was happy to “replace” him. Oh god. We decided I would go to his vet. Off to the country I went and in a cool ‘ol east coast house, was his office. I loved it. My kind of vet. A really tall, older man. With stethoscope on Kip, and without looking at me at all, he said, “Oh dear. You have a really sick puppy here.” With that he finally looked at me only to see this grown woman with tears dripping off her face, trying to somehow compose herself and he said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Ok, ok! Hold on!” With that and without another word, he walked over to his desk, in the middle of the examining room and picked up the phone. The conversation went, “Yeah, I got a sick puppy here, hole in the heart. Can she bring him to you? Great. I’ll give her the information. Thanks.” He came back with a note. “Call this number. It’s the Virginia Tech Vet School, (Blacksburg, VA). They’ll take a look at your puppy.”
I called them, made an appointment, researched on the internet about heart murmurs (lots of info on Mastiff websites on heart troubles!), cried to my neighbors, spoke to my Dr. friend, Marilyn, who helped with Dave’s stuff and prepared to go. Marilyn, offered to go with me. So I took her up on the offer and off we headed to Blacksburg, VA. The local hotel gave you a discount and was pet friendly. My first experience with going to a school and research facility for health issues. My, my, it didn’t go unnoticed by me years later dealing with Dave. I left my sweet puppy with a nice man and some “students” of veterinary medicine. Marilyn and I went off to enjoy the sunny day on a beautiful campus for a few hours.
Upon my return, Kip was happy to see me and not to worse for wear. My “team” informed me he did indeed have a hole in his heart known as Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD). None of the ones I was told he had and studied in my research. Go figure. Nothing could be done and no treatment recommendations. He might not live as long and I would notice “exercise aversion”. Basically, Kip wasn’t going to be running marathons or go out jogging with me. Watch for changes in appetite, coughs, keep his weight firmly under control, etc. The cost was about $300 for what otherwise would have been about $800 worth of tests up in DC.
In our hotel on the ocean, keeping watch
Kip is my “Mellow Yellow”. We continued to love him and I set about my plan to train him. Eighteen months of work with a great trainer. We spoiled him of course, but he was expected to be nothing less than a great companion and addition to our family. I bought good dog food (Flint River Ranch) as recommended by my trainer, as well as nourishing treats, and educated my family on the importance for him to be properly exercised and not to give him food “unapproved by Mom”.
It was a great illustration for my children about Life. Labs are retrievers. They love to fetch things. It is their purpose in life. We would throw the ball or stick and Kip would happily retrieve it a couple of times and then stop. His sister on the other hand, could run like the wind and she would happily fetch it again and again. I noticed that Kip began to let her fetch it and when she would come back he would wrestle her for it. I pointed out to the kids, “Look. Kip has figured out a way to overcome his deficiency and still make a game out of it! That my dears, is the secret to a happy Life!”
California Coast Road Trip
Kip is now almost 12 years old! So much for the “won’t live as long”. He has had a fairly normal pampered suburban, dog life. We only have to be thoughtful about our walks. How far and if it is really hot outside. Other than that, he plays, has short bursts of energy and brings us joy beyond measure. He has traversed the country in the car, first in the move and then to Little Rock with me, early in Dave’s treatment. He would sit at Dave’s feet in the bark-a-lounger everyday, all day. He was ever watchful of Dave. You’d like to think he knew things were going on. He is truly a great companion. He is easy going, thoughtful, doesn’t jump, knows lots of tricks and keeps Dave taking him on his evening walk around the park where he “checks his messages!”
His new bed in the move, my father's chair
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Sigh...
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My favorite 'lucky' portrait shot
Labradors [are] lousy watchdogs. They usually bark when there is a stranger about, but it is an expression of unmitigated joy at the chance to meet somebody new, not a warning. ~Norman Strung
Hanna – I like P-Mail! That’s perfect! And yes it is good to share and laugh about “other things!” I’m so glad you appreciate that about my writings. I know that I am not a one faceted person and assume other MMer’s aren’t either. I love learning about everyone’s “life”.
Angie, it breaks my heart you parted with Sparky, but I am so admiring at your clear lack of selfishness in your efforts to do what is best for Sparky, at the risk of losing him in your life. My hat is off to you in a big, big way. And yes, I was very happy that Premier Suites, where we stayed, was totally pet friendly. After that I left Kip with my new neighbors for the 3 week visits. They have a lab too, and four kids. Kip loves it there and I watch their lab in exchange. A good situation.
Awww…love the story Lori. I made one of the hardest decisions ever by giving away our Golden Retriever, Sparky, about 1/2 way through our LR treatments. He was staying with a friend but it was just too much to ask of others and it was impossible to take him with us (though I wish I had known where you stayed that allowed them). We found someone that wanted him and just this past week she wrote and told me that when she feels like no one loves her…she just has to get home to Sparky and he proves her wrong! 🙂 Maybe one day I can welcome the joy over the responsibility again. 🙂
That is so cute. I love it when the names have funny meanings.
I suppose I should spell it differently (I always say it but this is the first time I typed it out).
I think in retrospect that I prefer P-Mail so it’s closer to E-mail.
Gosh – isn’t it nice how we are all telling nice stories and LAUGHING! There is laughter and fun even with MM. Thanks for doing that for us.
Hannah, That’s great. I usually say he has to check his inbox, but pee-mail is really good! And love Sir Chancelot. My mother once named a beautiful stray black cat that we adopted Pound. Every time we moved she would throw him out of the house in the hopes he would move on. She named him Pound, of course, because she threatened daily to take him there.
Heart warming post. Thanks!
By the way the correct expression to “checks his messages!” is that he is checking his pee-mail. In case you weren’t aware of the terminology :-). I invented it by accident when walking Chance who I sometimes called Sir Chancelot.
Thanks for starting my day off with a smile.
Hi Lori,
We love animals at our house too. We’ve had horses, dogs, cats, frogs, turtles,hamsters, gerbils, fish, Pigs(um not really pets. They were named ham, bacon, and sausage. 😉 and now have 25 chickens too.
I think animals are so good for children. My boys just worship our two dogs. We have Zoey, an airedale terrier and Kirby, a shih tzu puppy. I’m tempted to change his name to Elmer because he is white and always stuck to me like glue 🙂
They both bring a lot of love into our home. Thanks for another great post, Kris
Awww, a fellow USAF brat eh! We were lucky at Beale AFB we could have horses right on the base at the stable there! Big, big, SAC base. Basically the horses never left, getting new kids and owners every time a family was relocated. Good situation to give us some normalcy as children. A rarity. Dogs were just harder to transport in the packed family car right?
Its funny you mention the thumping tail. Last night I came downstairs and Kip was sleeping on the landing. I tiptoed past, got something to drink and as I headed back up, in the dark, I heard, but could not see, thump, thump, thump! I stopped and petted behind the ears of a semi sleeping dog and gently moved past. Warmed my heart. And my cat lived to 20! Miss my kitty. Dave says no to another one. He didn’t grow up with pets so it has been interesting for him. Though he loves Kip. He got mad at me when we got him and now you would never know. Dave proudly shows off all the tricks the trainer and the kids taught Kip with any new visitor (with me rolling my eyes!). When I was obedience training Kip, the trainer gave the kids a weekly assignment and it was to teach Kip a new trick. It was a fabulous way to engage them in the process that was fun. So he speaks, shakes hands, rolls over, high fives, low fives and gives kisses on demand. Dave plays hide and seek with him in the house, with treat in hand, hiding in some corner, he yells for Kip to find him.
Lori, I love this blog post! I am a dog lover, as well.
Growing up in an Air Force family, we could never have dogs. Cats – yes. In fact, sort of like your experience, my friends and I in our small suburban Kansas City town in the early 60s each had a kitten from the same litter – 5 in all. Great fun when they got together!
When I was finally married at the age of 32, my wife had a border collie puppy and an aging cat. The dog became one of my best friends. She moved with us from Virginia to Missouri and died peacefully in her sleep at 12 years. The loss was profound for me. The cat died in her sleep at 21 years.
Since then we’ve had 6 more dogs, 3 right now. Every single one of them has stolen a piece of my heart. I wish that I could have taken them with me to the adventures in LR!
Kip is a beautiful lab – we have a black one. One of my favorite sounds is the thump-thump-thump of her tail EVERY time she sees me. Kip is also a defy- the-odds, I- have- a-lot -of- living -to- do, kinda’ critter. Fits right in with the Puente family!
Blessings!