Shaggy & Me

Before the book Marley & Me came out, there was Shaggy and me.

I had had a couple of dogs in my life before. The first was Blackie. He was part Pekingese and part Manchester Terrier. He looked like a black football with legs. For some reason my brother trains his dogs to be mean. Blackie was no exception. My brother got him when he was about three. He lived to be eighteen years old. I was sad when he died, but relieved he would not be biting me anymore.

In the winter of 1979 we tried to get me a dog. He was a beagle puppy named Snoopy. I had him for a few months. He set off my allergies too much to keep him. We gave him to an uncle and they made him into a hunting dog. I am sure he had a good life.

After Tammy and I got married in 1996, she thought I needed a dog. She felt a dog would be good training for children. I had never been around them, either. The dogs that belonged to the people next door had puppies. The dad, Yogi, was half Chow, half German Shepherd. The mom, Boo Boo, was half chow, half black Lab. They had six or eight puppies. They offered us one.

Tammy picked him out. They were all in the back of the dog house huddled together. One looked up above the other and yelped, “Yip! Yip! Yip!” That was the one she chose. The kids at the house had originally named him Boots. He had white on his front paws. Tammy and I decided to name him along with the cartoon characters. I love Scooby Doo. We could not name him Scooby since he was not a Great Dane. So, we named him Shaggy.

The first time we brought him over was on my birthday at my party. Everyone handled the little fur ball and passed him around. He was still a couple of weeks from being weaned. So he went back home.

When he was weaned, we brought him to our house. That first night was awful. He was in the kitchen with a gate on the door. He cried all night long. He missed his mommy and his siblings. This happened for several nights. One night I gave him some Southern Comfort. He was quiet all night. It was so quiet, I thought I killed him. I checked on him the next morning and he was fine. Eventually, he slept through the night.

Shaggy was a learning experience for me. He was pretty easy to housebreak. I was glad of that. I had just graduated and was home looking for a job. Shaggy kept me company all day until Tammy got home. One morning, I was having some leftover pancakes. I went to the kitchen to get some syrup. In the time I had walked to the fridge and back, Shaggy had eaten all my pancakes and was licking the bowl. I called Tammy and asked her how she liked him, baked, fried, or grilled. One time Tammy was in the shower and he was standing there with a Kleenex in his mouth. She took it away from him and threw it in the trash and put the can on the toilet. She thought he had gotten it from the trash. Then she saw he had another. She went to look and he had knocked the box off the nightstand and was pulling them out one at a time. He would play with them and show Tammy. She would take it away and he would get another one.

He was my constant companion that summer. While I searched the internet and mailed resumes, he would lay in the floor of the bathroom. The tile was nice and cool for him as opposed to the carpet. He chewed up the legs of the chairs of the kitchen set my mom gave us for a wedding present. Since we did not have a fence, I had a cable I would attach to him so he could go out in the yard.

After I got the job in CA, he kept Tammy company until they could join me. When Tammy moved to my mom’s house, he went with her. She would go out on the back porch and sing to him after work. She was really attached to him as well.

In California, he was an only child for a couple of years. He was inside most of the time. But, after the kids came along, he was an outside dog. He was so big, he would knock them over with his tail while they learned to walk. He was always a good sport about it. He loved the kids. He was so good to them. They would pull his tail or his ears and he would just take it. As the kids grew, he was allowed back into the house. That was when he became my son’s dog. He and PK had a special bond. They would play together. PK would lie on him like a big, fuzzy pillow. We were so relieved that he was good with the kids.

In the end, he was actually my dog. He only respected me. When Tammy would tell him something, he would do it only if he felt like it. Otherwise, he just ignored her. He saw the pecking order as me, him, then everyone else. He would bark and was loud. We had to use muzzles and bark collars to keep him quiet at night. He was very sociable with other kids and animals. The kids friends loved him. He would play with anyone. He was not much of a watch dog. But, that was ok with me. He was good natured and everyone loved him.

When we moved to Virginia, Shaggy came with us. Unfortunately, he was getting old. He had made the move well. We had lost our other dog on the way through Memphis. She ran away, again, and we could not find her. That was ok with shaggy. In VA, he was able to be inside most of the time. He also got all of the attention from us since he was the only pet. When we arrived, I took him to the vet. He had lost a lot of weight. He had liver and thyroid problems. We put him on different food and medicine. He did better. He started gaining weight. But his old bones were hurting him. I gave him glucosamine to help him. He was slow to get up and walk around.

He saw snow for the first time out in Virginia. He did not know what to think of it. We took him out walking through it. It was up to his chest. He hopped around the yard as best he could. One thing he did like about the snow was he could sleep in the garage. It became his room. He had some moving blankets he used for a bed. Since I am still out of work, he was with me all day. I would work on the computer and he would lay in the floor and snore the day away. When the kids got home, he would play with them until he was all worn out.

Last Friday night, PK let him in the house. He called us down because Shaggy was whining. When I got downstairs, Shaggy was blown up like a balloon and whining. We got dressed and took him to the emergency vet. They told us Shaggy’s stomach had become twisted. We could do surgery at a cost of $3,800 to $5,000. He would not live long with or without it. He had lost a lot of muscle mass in his back and she thought he had cancer. He was also thirteen years old.

I made the decision to have him put down. Tammy and PK came in to say goodbye. Alex was at camp with the Girl Scouts. They had taken the fluid off him and given him something for the pain. PK said he looked fine. I told him it was just temporary. He is very sick and in a lot of pain. PK got on the floor with him, gave him a big hug and cried. PK said, “Why did God do this to me?” I explained that God did not do anything to him. Shaggy had grown old and sick. That it how it works. It is his time to go. He had a good life, was happy and loved by almost everyone who met him. Now, it’s time to ease his pain and let him go.

PK and Tammy went back out into the waiting room while I waited with Shaggy for the nurse to come get him. I told him I loved him and would miss him. He was a great companion for years to me. A few minutes later they came and took him back. They asked if I wanted to go back with him. I did not. He was too stoned to know the difference. After it was over, they gave me a ceramic imprint of his paw. He was put down around midnight Saturday morning, May 8, 2010. We went home. Sunday, when I picked up Alex, I had to break the news to her. It was not good.

Since then, I miss him during the day. I still come down the stairs and into the garage to let him out. I keep closing the lid on the trash can so he will not get into it. I still close the bathroom door so he will not eat the toilet paper. I look at the place in the rug he used to lay while I played on the computer. Sitting on the couch, I wait for him to come by for me to rub my feet on him. I know these will all fade over time.

He was a good dog. I just hope someday, when I am gone, someone will speak as highly of me. Goodbye, Shaggy (1997-2010).