My Life with Dogs

Do Dogs feel an attachment towards each other?  Do they care for each other?  Lucky is the great (great) grandfather of several of my beagle Moms.  Birdy is the great, great grand aunt of the same beagles.   The two of the lived in my beagle retirement home.

The old ones need to have a “safe” place where they can get away from the young dogs.  This is even more important when the dogs are “less than perfect.”  Lucky has a bit of arthritis.  Birdy has cancer.  Bad breast cancer. 

She had  an infection in her milk glands as a young dog and they got enlarge and hung down.  Being a pocket beagle they almost reached the ground.  At about 10 years of age, she started to develop tumors along her belly.  They didn’t grow fast and at her age, we decided not to subject her to any cancer treatment.

Birdie got along fine living with her long time friend, Lucky.  They would go for little walk arounds (we have 1000 of acres of wood surrounding us) come in and sleep in the sun.  Somedays  Birdie would go to Lucky nudge him and head out the dog door.  When he didn’t follow she would come back and try and get him to go again.   They appeared happy and content.

Finally the tumors started to grow.  Movement got difficult for Birdie.  One tumor become enormous and Bitsy had to drag it around.  I know that many of you would say “Why didn’t you put her down?”

Our philosophy with our dogs, horses and cattle is “where there is life, there is hope”  and we don’t put an animal done till it says that it is time. 

Birdy never complained.   She couldn’t walk far but Lucke encouraged her to move around a bit.  When she didn’t want to go, he stayed with her.  He cleaned her face, licked her eyes and watched over her.  

One evening after  6 to 8 months after Birdy got bad, she was moving really slow when she come to supper.  I told the “old man”  that she isn’t going to be with us long now.  Birdy died that evening. 

The next morning we found Lucky sitting beside her in the dog house.  He wouldn’t budge. 

We also believe that dog’s grieve over death.. so we left him alone.  After about 48 hours, we had to take her.  He just watched and then went into a howl that he continued for several days.  I thought he was going to die. 

I put his two granddaughters in the pen with him in hopes that it would take his mind off of his loss.  It did!  He quit howling.  

It has been about 6 months since Birdy passed.  Lucky is OK.  He is not happy but he is OK.  He goes on little walks by himself.  He loves to be petted and always greets me with a wagging tail.   But one day I know he is going to go for a walk and not come back.   He will go off to die.

In Honor of the great Dog and Horse Moms that I have had the pleasure of knowing.

Julie, Julie, Julie. An amazing Miniature Beagle Mom that I was blessed to have. Julia had many pups over the course of her life and she loved every single one of them. In fact she loved all puppies. Her’s, her sisters’, her nieces! If it was puppy she loved it and would care for it.

One year,I created a spot for Julie to have her pup at the end of the concrete alleyway between the runs in my kennel and the backwall. I fixed up a den made of straw and she was delighted with the arrangement. She kept her 5 puppies snuggled up in a ball right in the center of the den.

About 2 weeks after Julie whelped, another little miniature beagle girl had her first litter. Everything seemed to go wrong for her! She lost one puppy. Then another. Nothing I did seemed to help! Within a few days we were down to the last pup and he wasn’t looking good.

I decided to try a crazy thing. I would give the last little pup to Julie, My SuperMom. By now, Julie’s pups were plump and 2 to 3 times bigger than this poor little pup that was clinging to life.

As I placed the pup in the group with her other pups, I thought, “This will never work. The pup can’t compete for a teat. He can barely move.” I was sure that he would be pushed out of the den and away from the other pups.

With my options down to double or nothing, I left the pup with Julie and her other babies, vowing to return in an hour or so to see how things were going.

When I returned, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Julie had made a new nest about a foot from her puppies’ nest. In the middle of this nest, lay the little orphaned puppy with his new Mom, Julie. She was licking him and cuddling him as he nursed.

Julie maintained these two nests, keeping the lone pup warm and full as well as her own pups. After a couple of weeks Julie must have decided that the little guy was big and strong enough to mix in with her pups because I found all the pups in the same pile of puppies.

Julie nutured all the pups into healthy, happy little pocket beagles. I named the little orphaned puppy, Lucky. Lucky to have survived. Lucky to have had Julie accept him.

Lucky grew into a beautiful male and I used him as the stud dog for my kennels for many years. He was the sire of many puppies and is in the pedigree of almost all the puppies that we have today.

Today Lucky is 13 years old and still lucky. The last couple of years, he and one of his lifelong girl friends lived together in a retirement village on the farm. His mate, Birdy, developed breast cancer in her later years. She manages to get along OK and they waddle around the ranch. Lucky with his arthritis and Bitsy with her enlarged teat. He cleans her face, guards over her and encourages her to take a little exercise every day.

This behavior is a bit out of type for a male dog but it reminds me of the great care that he had a pup. The nurturing of the young is one of the most important thing that determines what kind of adults they will be.

In my experience, I have found this to be true for dogs, horses, cattle and people.